Weird

Weird:

It has been proven that second-hand smoke increases health risks to pets and has been associated with cancers and respiratory infections, similar to the effect on humans.

“Think about a cat, what does it spend most of its time doing? Licking its fur,”Andrea Midgen from Auckland SPCA told ONE News.

“Meanwhile all those toxins are in its fur so then it’s going into its body.”

Even household fish are not immune to second hand smoke.

“Water soaks up all the pollutions out of the air, and the poor fish are swimming around in that,” Ms Midgen said.

Mrs Midgen doesn’t know much about cats. They actually spend most of their time sleeping, in my experience. Licking their fur is something they might do for a few minutes now and then,… before curling up and going back to sleep.

And if water soaks up “all the pollutions out of the air”, then all anyone would ever need for indoor clean air is a jug of water. I must try it sometime.

Weirder:

The President of the unelected executive arm of the European Union (EU) has vowed to block all right wing populists from power across the continent, shortly after acquiring the power to exert “far-reaching sanctions” on elected governments.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, promised to exclude Norbert Hofer, the leader of Austria’s Freedom Party (FPÖ), from all EU decision-making if elected ahead of yesterday’s presidential vote.

“There will be no debate or dialogue with the far-right,” the liberal bureaucrat told AFP.

Yet another reason to get out of the EU. “Far-right” really means “anyone we don’t like”. The EU is pretty undemocratic anyway, but now it’s got even more so.

I sometimes think these people are their own worst enemies.

And a little sanity:

Gregoris Tsahas has smoked a packet of cigarettes every day for 70 years. High up in the hills of Ikaria, in his favourite cafe, he draws on what must be around his half-millionth fag. I tell him smoking is bad for the health and he gives me an indulgent smile, which suggests he’s heard the line before. He’s 100 years old and, aside from appendicitis, has never known a day of illness in his life.

Tsahas has short-cropped white hair, a robustly handsome face and a bone-crushing handshake. He says he drinks two glasses of red wine a day, but on closer interrogation he concedes that, like many other drinkers, he has underestimated his consumption by a couple of glasses.

The secret of a good marriage, he says, is never to return drunk to your wife. He’s been married for 60 years. “I’d like another wife,” he says. “Ideally one about 55.”

And there’s a smoking ban in Greece.