Interesting Links for 24-12-2011

[andrewducker]

• The world's lowest-tech iPhone speaker looks gorgeous.
  (tags: iphone apple music design )
• World Champion Masturbator, Masanobu Sato, Expands On His Favorite Hobby
  (tags: masturbation video )
• iWatchz - Wear your iPod nano like a watch.
  (tags: ipod watch apple )
• Dutch TV is the first to show cannibalism by the show host!
  (tags: cannibalism tv )
• Frame-by-frame analysis of the first Hobbit trailer
  (tags: TheHobbit trailers )
• 3D Printing is a billion dollar industry and is almost ready to explode into the mainstream
  (tags: 3d printing Technology )
• Rolling stuff down hills in Skyrim.
  (tags: games physics ComputerGames )
• NHS board bans smoking in grounds. I do not approve.
  (tags: smoking nhs scotland )
• Obama's abysmal record on civil liberties
  (tags: barackobama rights usa epicfail )
• The world's 42nd fastest supercomputer does not exist (and is owned by Amazon)
  (tags: amazon computing )
• Helen Mirren wants to play The Doctor.
  (tags: HelenMirren drwho )
• LJ on their new comment system: IT'S BETTER. STOP WHINING. LA!LA!LA!LA! YOU LOVE IT REALLY!
  (tags: livejournal epicfail )
• John Carmack on the value of static code analysis
  (tags: code development johncarmack )

Comments

[andrewducker]

Anything which makes it harder for sick people to be visited by their loved ones is absolutely not ok by me.

[andrewducker]

I know about passive smoking. If they can enforce "not smoking on the property" then they can enforce "only smoking in the shelters", which would be absolutely fine by me.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

To me, smokers clustered around the doorway to their place of work or a bar, puffing away before going back in to whatever they were doing, look fairly similar to dodgy old guys sitting in a park looking shady and drinking cans of special brew or cheap cider.

The banning of smoking in lots of places has done wonders for making it look more like the addiction that it is.

[andrewducker]

Oh yes. And I'm generally in favour of the smoking ban in pubs, etc. This just feels like a step too far when we still have loads of smokers, who are more commonly elderly and likely to be spending time around hospitals.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

Am I correct in thinking that the number of smokers in the UK has dropped in recent years? I'm sure I saw something along those lines... I wonder how the drop in smokers versus the rise in prices affects the tax revenues from it.

[andrewducker]

That would be an interesting graph.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

Although I presume the loss of revenue from that and the (hoped for) decline in alcohol consumption would be offset by the lessened cost of healthcare.

But, to be bleak about things, I wonder how the costs incurred by the health problems brought on by smoking and drinking match against the costs of simply living longer because you don't smoke and drink. Mortality is complicated, someone find an actuary and a health insurance assessor!

[laplor.livejournal.com]

With the level of allergies I have, I had a lot of trouble running the gauntlet of smokers at the hospital doors before smoking on hospital grounds was banned here.

I am biased though, both of my parents died of diseases directly related to their constant smoking - which was also a contributing factor to the allergies and asthma that may eventually kill me.

[andrewducker]

Oh, I also think that people should stop smoking, and they shouldn't be doing it by the hospital doors. But the answer to the latter is to ensure that they use the provided shelters, and the answer to the former is long-term education.