No more Smoking U

It's another sunny, beautiful winter day at the foot of the Suzuka's.

Cigarette smoking is a real problem, both for people's health and the health of the environment. The industry is a plague really, with unethical companies preying on people with dangerous drugs, and farmers devoting their energies to providing tobacco to people instead of food, while millions starve.

Several universities in Japan are working to stop their schools from becoming places where young adults learn to smoke. Yokkaichi University has recently prohibited the use of tobacco anywhere in any of the buildings. The school has also taken the progressive step of providing the school nurse with information to pass out to the students on how to stop smoking, and free nicotene patches that smokers can use to ease them off their addiction.

Here's an article from Mainich Shinbun on the issue.

Graduated from where?

Junichiro Koga didn't graduate from Pepperdine... surprise, surprise. Guess he figured no one would call him on it. It's probably tempting to pull that kind of trick.

Sounds af if he was 19 credits short. For those of you not familiar with the system, that is about a semester and a little more, depending on how big a class load he would want to carry. I'm also not sure what classes he has to take, but usually senior-level courses are not easy, and if it has been 20 years since he studied at an American University, he may find it more difficult than he remembers.

If I were in the Admissions Office, I would think twice about letting this kind of person back in with the possiblity that they would eventually confir upon him a real degree, and then that same person is going to go around flaunting it. Does the school want that kind of advertisement.

I just did a quick search on Google for word if Koga's involvement in the US in the American media. I didn't find anything. that means that this guy got nearly 30 minutes of air time on the networks in Japan for this. He may be a liar, but he ain't stupid.