Smoking Gets Even Tougher in New York City...

I guess I am having an unhealthy night...

New York City under the guidance of Mayor Michael Bloomberg banned smoking in bars, restaurants, and other public indoor areas way back in 2002 (has he been in the big seat that long already?). This caused a little bit of a public outcry about the trampling of smoker's rights. However, that has seemingly passed. Nevertheless, it has taken the Bloomberg administration a very long time to become emboldened enough to take the next step and ban smoking in open public spaces.

Bloomberg has signed a law that bans smoking in all city parks, beaches, public plazas and boardwalks. If you get caught smoking in any of these places once the law comes into full force and effect, in about 90 days, there is a USD 50 fine. I am a non-smoker, so in the big scheme of things a ban of this nature bothers me nought. Yet, the reasoning for the ban is to protect non-smokers from the dangers of passive smoking. Now, I am sure most people can appreciate that passive smoking or being forced to suck-up the second-hand smoke from a smoker's cigarette in a confined space like a bar or restaurant is considerably different from smoking in a large open space like a beach.

I am no scientist, or chemist for that matter, but is second-hand smoke in a large public place a serious threat to non-smokers? On a slightly different tangent. Where are smokers going to be able to light up their cancer sticks and take the years off their collective lives?

After all, if I am not mistaken, tobacco is a legal product and those who wish to indulge in the habit are, and must be, allowed to do so. So, I wonder, where does Mayor Bloomberg and his health-conscious pencil-pushing tobacco banners proposing that cigarette smokers go to feed their nicotine cravings? Is the expectation that smoking becomes an exclusively home-based activity? Then again, perhaps the next smoking law will ban smoking in all private homes where their are children present.

I have always been intrigued by the argument that smoking is a human right and that restricting where it can occur is tantamount to violating the civil liberties of smokers. I am not quite sure where the balance is for those who do not smoke. So, do the human rights of smokers trump the human rights of non-smokers?

Considering, the ongoing onslaught against smokers to reduce the places where they can indulge, perhaps the answer is to take the plunge and go the whole nine yards; make smoking illegal, make tobacco illegal.

Citizen Journalism, Steve Jobs, and the Apple Share Price

The rapid improvements in technology and the greater accessibility to it for the ordinary person has meant that the term citizen journalism has come to mean a rapid dissemination of information no matter whether that information is true or not. Any information that is untrue will eventually be found out but perhaps not before the damage is already done.

Apple learnt this the hard way recently. It would be sublimely ironic if the person that posted the erroneous report was using Apple technology or was a shareholder in Apple.

Time Warner who is the owner of CNN and therefore of a site called iReport which was put together by CNN as a community journalism portal. iReport is designed to be a portal for information that is directly uploaded to the site without any real vetting. The headline for iReport is unedited, unfiltered, news. Any information uploaded that is found to contravene the "community guidelines" for the site will be removed.

I am sure that CNN have posted a big disclaimer that it is not responsible for nor guarantees the accuracy of the information that gets uploaded to the iReport site.

A posting on iReport claimed that Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, had suffered a heart attack and was being rushed to hospital. As bad as the heart attack for Jobs might have been if it was real was cause for investors to panic and perhaps have heart attacks themselves.

In the ensuing panic Jobs might actually have had a heart attack when he saw Apple's share price plummet some 9% and hitting a 17-month low and finally closing down some 3% for the day's trade. The report and the rapid fall in share price has sparked the interest of the Security and Exchange Commission. The SEC has indicated that they are going to investigate.

This is not the first time Jobs has had medical problems in fact it has been reported by Bloomberg that Jobs had died as recently as August. Jobs responded by telling the audience at his next public appearance that reports of his death had been greatly exaggerated.

The question is whether or not erroneous reporting like this example is enough to kill citizen journalism. My view is that it is not. The reality is that people need to take responsibility as much for what they read as they write. Besides there are probably more instances of citizen journalists being right on the money rather than missing big time like this report of Steve Jobs imminent demise.