Joe Camel Exposed

How many miles would you walk for a Camel? Well, how about how many pages would you read? If you’ve got the appetite, you can check out more than 2,000 pages of once-secret internal documents from the brains behind Joe Camel--R.J. Reynolds. Before a landmark lawsuit forced the company to do otherwise, the tobacco giant used Joe Camel to attract youths to smoking. Anyone can now view the marketing documents on the World Wide Web. UC San Francisco has posted them at https://www.library.ucsf.edu/tobacco/mangini/.

Invasion of the Cootie

Better make sure you’ve gotten your cootie shot before you visit the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County this summer. The museum is hosting an exhibition until Sept. 4 called “Microbes: Invisible Invaders . . . Amazing Allies.” The exhibit will take visitors on a journey through the mysterious universe of microscopic organisms, and will explore the history of infectious diseases and current research against infection worldwide. The display will feature virtual reality, 3-D animation and special effects technology to inform about bacteria, viruses, fungi and protozoa, a.k.a. germs. Sounds like an ideal field trip for kids who insist on acting like pills.

Olympian Health Care

Turns out Kerri Strug, the bravest little gymnast around, wasn’t the only one injured at the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996. Nearly 35% of all medical visits were blamed on injuries (figures don’t include victims of the bomb explosion), according to a recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. Another major problem was heat-related illnesses, 90% of which were suffered by spectators.

Investing in Safety

If you can recover from watching the super-sizzling, sexy stars of “Baywatch” long enough, you might just learn something. The show, one of the most watched in TV history, plans to begin broadcasting public service announcements four times an episode encouraging people to wear life vests when boating. Every year about 700 people die in boating-related accidents and nine out of 10 of those victims weren’t wearing a life jacket, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. For more information on boating safety, visit the Web site of the National Safe Boating Council at https://www.SafeBoatingCouncil.org.