Phillip Kirschberg

elmo from sesame street is holding a tennis ball and saying " so excited " ALT: elmo from sesame street is holding a tennis ball and saying " so excited "

Good night!
I have to get my rest. It’s a big day tomorrow! #RAK Random Acts of Kindness Day! I ❤️ that day!!!
Sweet dreams!
#BeKind

Robert Duvall played so many memorable roles in his life, but if forced to choose just one, I'll take Gus McCrae every time

"Well we don't rent pigs and I figure it's better to say it right out fron.t because a man that does like to rent pigs is.. he's hard to stop."

RIP legend.

“What we’ve done is caused a pseudo-prohibition,” said Rohan Pike, a former federal police detective who led a tobacco task force for the Australian Border Patrol. “It has spawned an organized crime marketplace.”

Yet the WHO maintains higher cigarette taxes "help" people quit.

How $40-a-Pack Cigarettes Pushed Australians to the Black Market

Between the recent AP story on Mexican cartels supplying illicit vapes and now this NYT story on Australia's criminal cigarette market, it feels like media is starting to pick up on the failures of prohibitionist tobacco control policy.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/15/w...

Smoke-Free Products Nearing 50% of the Nicotine Market Thanks to Tobacco and Vaping Companies But In Spite of the Actions of Most Tobacco Control Groups
tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com/2026/02/smok...

Interview: David Zaruk, The Risk Monger - Clearing the Air David Zaruk (aka the Risk Monger) has been an EU risk and science communications specialist since 2000, active in EU policy events from REACH and SCALE to the

Michael Bloomberg’s colossal global influence on THR denial!

“The entire tobacco harm reduction sphere is dealing with the rather heavy-weighted influence of one particular person, Michael Bloomberg. He has spent $1.6 billion on fighting tobacco harm reduction”

clearingtheair.eu/en/post/inte...

tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com/2026/01/mass...

Haven't written much on my tobacco policy beat lately, but Mexico just implemented a law that criminalizes selling vapes with penalties of up to 8 years in prison. All while regular cigarettes are completely legal, mind you. Awful policy.
tobaccoreporter.com/2026/01/16/m...

This just isn't true on any scale other than anecdote. Despite our government's best efforts to fuck it up, Americans are massively replacing smoking with safer forms of nicotine.

Trader Joe's Exec1: we'll sell lots of really good stuff at good prices

Exec2: that doesn't sound at all evil. We're a big company, we're supposed to be evil

Founder1: we are going to have the most inadequate, cramped, badly designed parking lots in the fucking world

Founder2: ok that works

Hardly any stores left in Portland

This aggression will not.. etc, etc.

a cartoon of a boy holding a sign that says " welcome great pumpkin " ALT: a cartoon of a boy holding a sign that says " welcome great pumpkin "

Ah, yes. It's a crisp, sub 60° morning here in the deep South.

No candy corn, please.

God, artists are so whiny about people using AI to make stupid lil art like I was like make a photorealistic sea otter floating on its back eating 8 bit pepperoni pizza and it did

Watching football after a walk #blueskysupperclub

I’m a big fan of honesty here. Try one of these replies!

“Wow, that was a rude thing to say.”

“Whoopsie! Did you mean to say that out loud?”

“You remind me of Andy from The Office.”

“Lower your voice to match your height.”

“Apologize before I leave this job like your dad left you.”

Next up: "Please remember I wrote about NASA on a post-it note exactly one year ago, one year before the Challenger blew up. And I said, "You've got to watch that Space Shuttle. It's gonna explode!"

Donny, please. You do not, in fact, have to take any credit.

#blueskysupperclub

A conservative family member told me this article would have been better if it had stuck to coffee, completely oblivious that this is a genuine threat against the place I call home. If you live in a red state suburb you can comfortably pretend none of it is real.
slate.com/life/2025/09...

Bringing together science fiction and science fact, Arielle Selya expertly sums up the systemic issues facing researchers in the modern era in her #GFN25 Michael Russell Oration.

This is interesting.

"Ban on vapes a great big bust: More youngsters smoking (in Australia)"

Check out the rest of the story on page nine. Link:
todayspaper.adelaidenow.com.au/html5/reader/p…

Presentation for CDC advisers appears to cite nonexistent study to support claims about risk of vaccine preservative | CNN A presentation slated to be shared at this week’s meeting of vaccine advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention claimed that a study in animals suggested that use of the vaccine pre...

Somehow missed this: A presentation to advisers for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cited study in animals suggested that use of the vaccine preservative thimerosal can have “long-term consequences in the brain.” But it looks like that study does not exist.
www.cnn.com/2025/06/24/h...

There should be a seventh season of "Peaky Blinders" where everyone still thinks Tommy Shelby is dead and Winston Churchill sends him on secret missions that shape the outcomes of crucial Allied victories during WWII.

I'd settle for a two-part limited series as long as it didn't suck.

Jacob Grier stands on stage at a speaker podium, smiling while delivering his keynote address at the 2025 Global Forum on Nicotine in Warsaw.

Loved seeing @jacobgrier.bsky.social give a keynote address this morning on outdated media narratives on nicotine and tips for bettering science journalism @gfn.events

World famous magician Penn Jillette’s semi-autobiographical novel about criminal carnies We’re fortunate that Penn Jillette's real-life trajectory led to the brilliance of Penn and Teller. That his new work of autofiction leads into a fun crime novel instead is just a bonus.

Penn Jillette's new novel Felony Juggler, recommended by me today:
www.washingtonexaminer.com/premium/3434...

A friendly reminder that you can strongly disagree with Israel’s military action in Iranian territory, strongly disagree with Trump, and still not praise or elevate a murderous, destructive, theocratic authoritarian regime: the Islamic Republic of Iran!

YouTube video by Global Forum on Nicotine NEW PROHIBITION | Jacob Grier on Tobacco Control’s Dangerous Turn

Brent Stafford:
“So what do you see as the key blind spots, the distortions underlying the assumptions that shape the mainstream narrative around nicotine?”

Jacob @jacobgrier.bsky.social:
[Contemplative Blinking] “How much time do we have, Brent?”

@gfn.events
Must click:
youtu.be/Z-ZOX51lhGU?si…

To Bring Tobacco Harm Reduction to Prisons, We Need Outside Allies Prisoners need THR, and anti-vape policies are ripe for change. But we can't do this alone. I'm asking the rest of the community to step up.

Great article from @filtermag.bsky.social, featuring the astute observations of notable author, harm reduction advocate, and all around fun guy, Jacob Grier. @jacobgrier.bsky.social

Dig in.
filtermag.org/tobacco-harm...

I am so very, very tired...

I just can't talk about it.

This fine woman continues putting up with my foolishness year after year, and for that she deserves medals, parades, and luxury travel accommodations.
Happy Mother's Day.