And now as a supplement to Sykes' last post regarding our time at the Vegas show, here's a spiffy video for your enjoyment. Cheers!

The sun goes down and the streets in the city are lighted. But not with electricity. The glow comes from bioluminescence of genetically modified trees. This may sound like science fiction; however, scientists could develop glowing trees that replace streetlights. This breakthrough in bioluminescence was derived from research done at Cambridge University. The process is implemented by transduction of modified genes with E. coli bacteria. No glowing trees have been grown, but multiple colors and significant amounts of light have been produced using this method.

These newer breakthroughs in genetic engineering are derived from studies initially done using tobacco plants. Biochemists from the University of California at San Diego added the gene of a firefly to the tobacco's DNA. The gene produces Luciferase (an enzyme that makes fireflies glow). The scientist then integrated it into tobacco cells. The result was a tobacco plant with leaves, roots and stems that glow. Just like a firefly.

We received the new Pipes & Tobaccos Magazine in the mail while the four of us were in New Orleans. No one here told me it had arrived, of course (they really shouldn't toy with my emotions that way), but in it is the interview/article that Chuck Stanion and I did here at Smokingpipes.com in June. I'm really delighted with how it came out; Chuck actually managed to make me sound like an intelligent adult instead of an overexcited eight-year-old hopped-up on Mountain Dew, which is a true testament to Chuck's journalistic, or perhaps literary, talents...

So, a big thank you to Chuck both for the article and continuing to put together a great magazine quarter after quarter. If you don't subscribe to P&T, well, you most definitely should.

It's not yet up on their website, but if they put the full article up in the coming days, I'll post the link to it. But, really, it's P&T, you really should have a subscription...

Part III of the interview that Kevin Godbee did with me a few weeks ago is now up at PipesMagazine.com. In this part, Kevin and I discuss what makes Smokingpipes different from others out there and what the future may hold for the pipe world. Read on as Kevin and I ramble on about Smokingpipes.com, what we do here, and why I think what we do is really, really cool.

Part II of the interview that Kevin Godbee did with me a few weeks ago is now up at PipesMagazine.com. In this part, Kevin and I discuss attracting younger (20s and 30s) potential pipe smokers to the joys of the pipe. Read on as Kevin and I ramble from anthropological discussions of the way various groups differentiate themselves, the nature of the internet as an informational medium, and how to use all of that to say to a potential younger pipe smoker: "you should smoke a pipe. It's really, really cool."

There's a certain delicious internet-age postmodern irony to writing a blog entry about a visit from a journalist who will write about Smokingpipes.com. And that's largely why I'm writing this. Kevin runs PipesMagazine.com, a fairly new pipe news site. He and Bob have been working really hard to develop good articles and I think their efforts are really showing fruit. Kevin visited us in preparation for an article about Smokingpipes.com, coming on the heels of the pieces he did on our 10th Anniversary festivities in Chicago. Kevin and I spent almost the whole day chatting about pipes, pipe tobacco, and Smokingpipes.com. To the left is a picture of that interview/discussion. That day also yielded the 'Sykes Blooper Reel', but that's gotten more than enough play, so I'm not linking to it...