• In 20 minutes your blood pressure will drop back down to normal.
• In 8 hours the carbon monoxide (a toxic gas) levels in your blood stream will drop by half, and oxygen levels will return to normal.
• In 48 hours your chance of having a heart attack will have decreased. All nicotine will have left your body. Your sense of taste and smell will return to a normal level.
• In 72 hours your bronchial tubes will relax, and your energy levels will increase.
• In 2 weeks your circulation will increase, and it will continue to improve for the next 10 weeks.
• In three to nine months coughs, wheezing and breathing problems will dissipate as your lung capacity improves by 10%.
• In 1 year your risk of having a heart attack will have dropped by half.
• In 5 years your risk of having a stroke returns to that of a non-smoker.
• In 10 years your risk of lung cancer will have returned to that of a non-smoker.
• In 15 years your risk of heart attack will have returned to that of a non-smoker.

I found this list while browsing the internet this evening.

It’s funny that a comment from one gentleman was ” Yeehaw! I hit the ten-year mark last summer. Too bad I gained 60 lbs. since then. I wonder what risk category that puts me in.”

Not much to talk about lately. But today was a particularly interesting day for quirky news stories.

• Canadian Troops have to battle 10-foot marijuana plants. They tried to burn them down, but downwind soldiers suffered “ill effects”!
• A youth baseball coach who allegedly paid an 8 year old to bean his autistic teammate with a baseball has gotten up to 6 years in prison. This was so the autistic child would not be able to play in an important game. What a shagged up world, eh?
• In Florida, a father is being charged with aggravated child abuse in the “torture, malicious punishment and unlawful caging” of his own son. The child spent most of the last three years locked in his bedroom with video cameras locked on him. He was allowed to use the washroom once per day. The child’s mother said “We’re very protective.” (shakes head in disbelief)
• In Alberta, a man just won a lawsuit against the RCMP to keep $18,000 in cash he found in his mailbox. The money was dropped in the wrong mailbox, so the man turned it in to the police. When the people in the household of the right address refused to acknowledge the money was theirs (hmmm…fishy), the RCMP were unable to press charges but refused to return the money to the original finder. Makes you wanna be super honest, eh?
• Buffalo, New York got hit with 2 feet of snow yesterday!!! This set a new record for October snowfall… the old record was 6 inches on Oct 31, 1917! They can have it. So far, we’re still sleeping with the windows open.

Well, that’s it for the quirky quickies. Some weird shit happening these days.

Steve Irwin, better known as The Crocodile Hunter, was killed today. His heart was punctured by the barb from a short-tailed stingray while filming footage for his television show.

I always wondered when this would happen. But I always thought it would be a result of a miscalculation with a violent, gory death. But apparently, these sting rays are fairly docile and he was actually riding its back when the event happened. The sting from a sting ray’s barb, which can grow up to 5 inches long, is rarely fatal to humans. I heard on the news that it had been more than 60 years since an Australian was killed by a sting ray. But the barb slipped under Irwin’s ribcage and punctured his heart.

Watching a repeat episode of Larry King Live tonight featuring Steve Irwin, he stated that he trusted animals more than humans. At least an animal won’t stab you in the back. Almost a foreshadowing statement, eh?