China works to ban smoking

There is a new movement in China to try to ban smoking in public places. This proposal is a part of the new set of health regulations that government officials in China hope to implement for a healthier population and better working and living conditions for all. There was previously a law in place from 1991 that covered smoking restrictions but it has been ill enforced and isn’t working very well to curb people’s bad habits.

China, a country with the most smokers in the world, may be taking a step toward addiction-free living as soon as May 1^st. The reason that such laws have not already been approved has been due to the strong resistance of the wealthy tobacco companies and the already addicted population. The guidelines suggested seem to be very reasonable and will put China on the path to a healthier public environment, since the proposal targets public places specifically. Not only will smoking be banned in indoor places if this becomes a law but it also seeks to increase health management regulations in public places in other ways as well.

The World Health Organization plays some part in this and supports China’s step forward although it does note some flaws in the new proposal. Dr. Sarah England, head of the World Health Organization's Tobacco Free Initiative in China, takes issue not with the steps forward but with the definition of public places’ exclusion of government offices and other workplaces. However, there are other problems with this new set of regulations as well. With about 30% of the population of China smoking, enforcement of these rules will likely be a huge issue.

These new guidelines will extend non-smoking areas to hotels, restaurants, cafes, bars, hair and beauty salons in addition to some other places. They also call for signs to be put up and for part of the staff of places considered to be public to try and persuade employees to give up smoking. The question is, should these new rules be put into law and will they do any good?

Buckeye Five

It was announced yesterday that the Buckeyes may not be looking like such a shoe in for winning the Big Ten next year due to a rather strange turn of events. Five of the main players for the Ohio State football team will be required to sit out the first five games of the season due to selling jerseys and other Buckeye mementos to a tattoo parlor earlier in the 2010 football season. However, this isn’t even the most noteworthy part of the whole story.

It turns out that their head coach is being punished right along with them and will also be forced to sit out some of the season. In addition to this he will also be forced to pay a $250,000 fine. This is due to the fact that he had prior knowledge of the incident and chose not to report it for almost 9 months prior to the time it was discovered by the NCAA and the university. This sounds like an extremely harsh punishment but for this same offense most coaches can expect to be fired outright since it goes against a NCAA bylaw. The only real surprise here is that he voluntarily extended his university imposed suspension from 2 games to 5. He has stated that he is doing so in an attempt to face his mistakes along with the penalized members of the team.

Their restrictions include clauses that bar them from communicating with anyone in the stadium during the games. The first date they’ll be eligible to play on is October 8^th but until then they’ll be without their starting quarterback, starting tailback, starting left tackle, and one of their most reliable deep threats. With these restrictions, beating out the Big Ten next season is looking grim.

For the players this is the end of the speculations on their punishment and the duration they can no longer play but for head coach Jim Tressel there is still more to come. Another NCAA judgment is forthcoming and it still has the ability to make 5 games seem like nothing at all. It has sufficient proof against the coach to call the whole 2010 season into question and impose at the least a one year ban. The real question to my mind is what SHOULD be done here? And why in the world did he keep silent for so long about something he knew was wrong?

Click here for details of the suspensions

College Exams Aced?

Getting into college is no walk in the park, and doing so in Japan is no exception. University entrance exams, as we all know can be brutal and exhaustive. Cheating on these exams in Japan is as taboo as it is here in America, however Japan may soon prosecute the first person ever for cheating.

If charged the student in question, whose name is being withheld in the media, may face jail time for up to 3 years and the equivalent of $6,000 in fines. The charge is obstructing business through fraud since he used his cell phone to post questions onto the internet during his exam under a fake alias name and people posted answers in response throughout the day during his test period.

After this case was reported, police investigated and determined that he had done the same for 3 other exams he took earlier in the month. Even if he is charged, and it has been reported as being unlikely, he could easily apply to other school and do the same thing since most universities don’t check students’ criminal records.

Okay, we all know how difficult college entrance exams and standardized tests are but how strict should the punishment for violating these rules be? Does the punishment fit the crime?

How this case will end is still unknown but it has raised various concerns, especially prominent is the question of whether universities are keeping up with the rapid transit of information available handily through modern technology. Many question whether top universities have adapted to the new opportunities for cheating and the availability of the internet and what schools plan to do to avert this problem in the future.

If this student is found to have cheated, the universities will disqualify him, they’ve said. Also, in response to this other universities have been beefing up their security measures and supervision.

Read more here