Inner screens and cybernetic battlefields:Paul Virilio and RoboCop

Padilha’s new Robocop film can be read in the light of Paul Virilio’s theoretical work, notably Desert Screen. Robocop serves as the city’s warrior but also as a munition in the hands of global media forces. Still, even if the film presents the fallibility of robotic technology, its true failure is in sustaining the progressivist myth of technology perfectly under human control.

Smoke rings:towards a comprehensive tobacco free policy for the Olympic Games

Background The tobacco industry has long sought affiliation with major sporting events, including the Olympic Games, for marketing, advertising and promotion purposes. Since 1988, each Olympic Games has adopted a tobacco-free policy. Limited study of the effectiveness of the smoke-free policy has been undertaken to date, with none examining the tobacco industry's involvement with the Olympics or use of the Olympic brand. Methods and Findings A comparison of the contents of Olympic tobacco-free policies from 1988 to 2014 was carried out by searching the websites of the IOC and host NOCs. The specific tobacco control measures adopted for each Games were compiled and compared with measures recommended by the WHO Tobacco Free Sports Initiative and Article 13 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). This was supported by semi-structured interviews of key informants involved with the adoption of tobacco-free policies for selected games. To understand the industry's interests in the Olympics, the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library (http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu) was systematically searched between June 2013 and August 2014. Company websites, secondary sources and media reports were also searched to triangulate the above data sources. This paper finds that, while most direct associations between tobacco and the Olympics have been prohibited since 1988, a variety of indirect associations undermine the Olympic tobacco-free policy. This is due to variation in the scope of tobacco-free policies, limited jurisdiction and continued efforts by the industry to be associated with Olympic ideals. Conclusions The paper concludes that, compatible with the IOC's commitment to promoting healthy lifestyles, a comprehensive tobacco-free policy with standardized and binding measures should be adopted by the International Olympic Committee and all national Olympic committees.

Smoke on the water: the interplay of fire and water flow on Everglades restoration

Recent research makes clear that much of the Everglade’s flora and fauna have evolved to tolerate or require frequent fires. Nevertheless, restoration of the Everglades has thus far been conceptualized as primarily a water reallocation project. These two forces are directly linked by the influence of water flows on fire fuel moisture content, and are indirectly linked through a series of complex feedback loops. This interaction is made more complex by the alteration and compartmentalization of current water flows and fire regimes, the lack of communication between water and fire management agencies, and the already imperiled state of many local species. It is unlikely, therefore, that restoring water flows will automatically restore the appropriate fire regimes, leaving the prospect of successful restoration in some doubt. The decline of the Cape Sable seaside sparrow, and its potential for recovery, illustrates the complexity of the situation.

Placement for Profit: Menu Item Arrangement on Customer-Activated Computer Screens

Can profitable menu items be placed on a computer screen where they will be selected more readily than other items? The author examines whether printed menu theories and techniques can be applied, with the same results, to a computer menu screen

Effect of Smoke-Free Ordinances on Restaurant and Bar Sales

Peer-reviewed studies that have examined the effect of the enactment of smoke-free ordinances on restaurant and bar sales have uniformly found that the enactment of these ordinances does not decrease restaurant or bar sales, with most studies observing no effect on restaurant revenues.

Where there's Smoke

This thesis is a collection of thematically arranged poems that explore one of the significant ways in which we define ourselves as human beings, that is, through our past and present relationships with others, whether those relationships are familial, cultural, social or personal. Through the direct presentation of images, these largely narrative poems seek to refine perception and thus reveal some of the complicated truths inherent in our various relationships with others, all in an effort to find meaning. The form of the poems often reveals a process, a continual redefining of views on human experience in both its life-affirming and disappointing aspects. It is through such discovery and disclosure that these poems aim to affirm the process, passion, and meaningfulness of art and life.

Smoke gets in your eyes: what is sociological about cigarettes?

Contemporary public health approaches increasingly draw attention to the unequal social distribution of cigarette smoking. In contrast, critical accounts emphasize the importance of smokers’ situated agency, the relevance of embodiment and how public health measures against smoking potentially play upon and exacerbate social divisions and inequality. Nevertheless, if the social context of cigarettes is worthy of such attention, and sociology lays a distinct claim to understanding the social, we need to articulate a distinct, positive and systematic claim for smoking as an object of sociological enquiry. This article attempts to address this by situating smoking across three main dimensions of sociological thinking: history and social change; individual agency and experience; and social structures and power. It locates the emergence and development of cigarettes in everyday life within the project of modernity of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It goes on to assess the habituated, temporal and experiential aspects of individual smoking practices in everyday lifeworlds. Finally, it argues that smoking, while distributed in important ways by social class, also works relationally to render and inscribe it.

Disclosing effects of tobacco smoke on occupationally exposed workers at Lisbon restaurants

This study represents a global assessment of IAQ in Lisbon smoking entertainment places and health effects on exposed workers. Most importantly, it may contribute to the better understanding of pathogenesis mechanisms due to SHS exposure. In addition it may lead to the discovery of specific biomarkers for occupational SHS-exposure that might precede respiratory diseases on their employees and promote more effective therapies.