Good morning and greetings, photo fans. As we are all aware, time is flying by. Unless, of course, you’re locked up in solitary confinement at a fancy resort like San Quentin. Then, perhaps, time is not moving quite as rapidly as it does for the rest of the general and major population. In the words of Mick Jagger, “Tiiiime is on my side, yes it it.” I’m wondering if he meant the left or right?

I’ve been shooting digital photos since 2005. However, not to be negative, there was a time that I was using a process called film. I realized the other day as I searched through my photo albums looking for a picture that I ultimately couldn’t find that I have been taking shots of the sites and mounds of the westside and north coast for many years. I was amazed at how far back the archives went. No, I’m not talking cavemen rubbing two sticks together at sunset but West Cliff Drive in the 70’s. Today’s shots are from the days of yesteryear when negatives were the positive. Unfortunately, I have managed to permanently misplace many of them but who knew at the time that I’d ever need those extra dendrites.

I call the opening shot of the sunrise at Lighthouse Point “First Light.” Then it’s moving on to the lone cypress tree on West Cliff for an image I refer to as “Sky on Fire.” Then it’s your classic rainbow over the cypress tree from the same location. As we move to the evening hours we come upon a cloud convention taken from Stockton Avenue. And here’s the beauty of it all. Shots two (Sky on Fire) and four (sunset clouds) were taken the same day-it’s the ultimate daily double, Jeopardy fans, the double dip of sunrise and sunset from the same day (November 17, 2005.) It’s a westside classic. Then it’s onto to the coral salmon sand at dusk at Natural Bridges followed by another sunset that if I had been wearing any would have knocked my socks off.

Some of these pictures are smoking hot, and that leads us into today’s laugh and learn segment. As it turns out, offering a cigarette is as common as a handshake in Egypt, where the culture of smoking is so entrenched that patients sometimes light up in hospital rooms. You know you’re in trouble when your surgeon walks into the room puffing away on a Newport or Pall Mall. Or as the much-trafficked Stevie Winwood would say, “Light up or leave me alone.”

But now the government is getting serious about the health risks, beginning a campaign of visual warnings about tobacco’s dangers. And to show just how seriously they are taking this issue, smoking is no longer allowed in the emergency rooms or in the hospital ICU units, just in the general population areas. Furthermore, patients are no longer allowed to smoke during certain surgeries. No longer will we hear the doctor request, “Scalpel, gauze, ashtray.”

Starting August 1, cigarette labels in Egypt will be required to carry images of the effects of smoking: a dying man in an oxygen mask, a coughing child, the Marlboro Man in an oxygen tent, Joe Camel’s funeral and a limp cigarette symbolizing impotence.

It is a major step in Egypt’s fledgling anti-smoking campaign and a dramatic change in a country where public discussion of smoking’s health risks and NHL hockey are nearly nonexistent. The impotence image may have a particularly strong effect on Egyptians as well the dachshund not entering the tunnel and a pharaoh not being able to climb the old pyramid.

The photo of the limp cigarette comes with the warning that “long-term smoking has an effect on marital relations” – a somewhat milder version than the European Union has recommended for its member countries, which states directly that smoking causes impotence and shows a discontented young married couple sitting apart in bed watching Dr. Phil.

Twelve countries, including Canada, Jordan, Bird, Magic, Brazil and Thailand require graphic photos of the effects of smoking to be printed on cigarette packs. Many have reported success in at least reminding smokers of all the fun associated with lung cancer and emphysema. But the campaign faces a tough challenge among Egypt’s totally addicted, mummy-loving, smoke ring blowing citizens.

Egypt is one of the top 15 smoking countries in the world and they are not referring to supermodels sunbathing in the parks of downtown Cairo. Nearly 60 percent of all adult males in the country of 79 million people use tobacco in some form, compared with 24 percent of men in the United States. This might have been what Deep Purple was referring to when they sang “Smoke on the water, fire in the Nile.”

While anti-smoking campaigns have been in place for decades in the West, the issue has not even been on the agenda in Egypt or the Middle East. According to the American Cancer Society, in the 1990s, when smoking in the developed world declined, it increased 8.6 percent in this region. They were actually going for a double digit increase but ran out of Bic lighters.

So here’s Egypt’s master plan. A month ago, the country’s tobacco control department was launched, though it consists of only two people in a closet-sized office with no telephones and an annual budget of just $12,500. They also have a printer with no ribbon, a fax machine but no paper and a Omar Sharif autographed hookah for office and holiday parties.

For the new label requirements, authorities field-tested a variety of images. They found that warnings linking tobacco with death were not particularly effective with Egyptians, because dying is perceived as inevitable anyway. Hopefully the same theory doesn’t hold true with showering. Also, images of diseased lungs left people confused about what was being shown as many perceived it to be a tar and nicotine party.

Instead, the new warnings focus on threats to health and, particularly, to family, like the effect on children and pregnant women and the risk of impotence. “We need something to give the smokers a shock that they are in great danger,” said Dr. Mohammed Mehrez, head of the tobacco control department. I’m with you, Doc. I believe it all comes down to the words of “The Honeymooner’s” Ralph Kramden when asked by his pal Ed Norton, “Mind if I smoke?” Replied Ralph, “I don’t care if you burn.”

That’s our health news for the week. Tune in again Monday when we’ll go back in the time tunnel and check out some more classic photos from when I was still dealing with film hesitation. Now, I click away like Madonna at a Kabala retreat in the Catskills. So have a beautiful weekend, enjoy the colors of the cliff and let’s hope the fires fade in California. Aloha, mahalo, thank you firefighters and I’m outta here.

Good morning and greetings, space cowboy fans. Ah, space, the final frontier. If you’re like me, at some point during the day, you probably ask yourself, “Was there ever life on Mars? And is there really a possibility that John McCain might be our next president?” Well, since today we are going to explore the Red Planet, I thought we would go with a montage of Santa Cruz rouge to celebrate the occasion.

The first two shots are from a sunrise at Steamer Lane. I believe these would be called ‘the redder the better.” The next set is from an epic sunset I shot at Stockton Avenue. This might be referred to as “Code Incredibly Red.” The final set is a couple of sunset shots from Natural Bridges.” I believe these might be called “Red Dessert.” Well, now that we have the color scheme in place, let’s take a look at what’s turning the heads of school children, NASA scientists and flight attendants this week.

For the first time ever, the world is getting a glimpse of the northern most surface of Mars-flat, frozen like a Snickers Bar and potentially hiding secrets that could open a new world of scientific knowledge. After a 422-million-mile, 296-day voyage (without once stopping to use the restroom,) the Phoenix spacecraft made a nearly perfect soft, chewy caramel landing last week on the chocolaty Martian terrain. This was cause for celebration for scientists at both the University of Arizona and at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in California since more then half of previous Mars’ missions had failed and neither had had a party for Cinco de Mayo.

Phoenix (without Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire) survived a wild, risky ride through the Red Planet’s atmosphere, slowing down from about 12,700 MPH to just over 5 MPH using braking rockets, a parachute and pair of flip flops and flying thru temperatures nearly as hot as the sun and the LA Lakers.

Two hours after the landing, the first photos revealed exactly what NASA was hoping for. No, not new shots of Jessica Simpson and Tony Romo, but a landscape of lumps and cracks, ground worked and reworked by thousands of years of freezing and thawing, a sign of water and potentially life. So began the three month search to see if life-giving water, chemicals and condiments were once abundant on the planet. In other words, if Mars was ever a “habitable planet.” The answer, my friend, may be frozen just beneath the Martian surface or is blowing in the wind.

But here’s a news flash. On Friday, a study by Harvard professor of Earth and planetary sciences Andrew Knoll, in the journal Science reported that earlier findings by the veteran Mars rover Opportunity, which has been exploring near the Martian equator, showed that any water left from the planet’s early days billions of years ago would have been far too salty to have sustained any form of life known on earth, wind or fire.

According to Professor Knoll, “Our sense has been that while Mars is a lousy environment for supporting life today, long ago it may have more closely resembled earth. But this result suggests quite strongly that even as long as 4 billion years ago, the surface of Mars would have been challenging for life. This doesn’t rule out life forms we’ve never encountered, but life that could originate and persist in such a salty setting would require biochemistry distinct from any known among the most robust halophiles on earth.” The Tucson-based Phoenix science team did not respond to the Harvard report but wondered aloud whether sour grapes could grow in a climate such as Harvard Square.

So for now the Phoenix, without former coach Mike D’Antoni, is using its 8-foot robotic arm to dig like a backhoe to scoop up icy samples to analyze them in an on board laboratory looking for clues for when Mars had a warmer, wetter climate, something like the Jersey shore in the summertime. Scientists are looking to find evidence that the Martian climate was once benign enough to support liquid water and the organic chemical constituents of living organisms or game show writers. This first ever exploration of extraterrestrial water could lead to a manned mission to Mars, or if not, at least the first reality show based in space. The working title, “Dancing with the Mars.”

And this just in. On Saturday, scientists at the University of Arizona are convinced they a found a bright and shiny layer of genuine ice only inches below the Martian soil. In the words of scientist Peter Smith “It’s shiny and smooth-it’s absolutely astounding.” If Smith and his team are right, the find means at the very least that real, liquid water could have existed on Mars. When asked about the discovery, scientists at Harvard were not impressed and responded, “Let us know when they find some soda.”

So that’s our look at what’s happening on the reddest of planets. I find it interesting that we can spend $420 million to send a spacecraft into space yet our schools have no money. Or as the bumper sticker says, “After we rebuild Iraq can we rebuild our schools?” But I don’t want to end this interplanetary excursion on a sour note so let’s go with a little space humor.

Two young astronauts were discussing the space program. One says, “Why do we have to go to the moon or Mars? Why don’t we go straight to the sun.” The other astronaut says, “If we come within ten million miles of the sun, we’ll burn up.” “So we’ll go at night!” Okay, sports fans, enjoy the redness along West Cliff Drive and we’ll catch you for some fresh color on Wednesday. And remember, no rebounds, no rings. Later, aloha fans.