Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Disappearance of the Ashtray

clivethompson.medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 668 posts

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#101

Post by fortran77 »

relwin wrote: post #66
j_m_b wrote: post #7

It's tough to portray just how ubiquitous smoking was to a modern audience. You would go to a restaurant and the first thing your hostess would ask is "smoking or non"? I remember standing in a checkout line in the 80s as a child and being fascinated with the billowing clouds of smoke an old lady blew. I remember coming home from bars reeking of smoke, even though I didn't. Even teachers had their own lounges that re…

I shared an office with a smoker back in the day -- one or two smoking visitors would leave a cloud hanging for an hour. About 10 years later (several years into the smoking ban in the U.S. workplace) went on a business trip to Japan where all the smokers at work were confined to a small "smoking lounge." You couldn't see their faces through the window due to the thick smoke! Nowadays I can easily smell someone smoki…

My first computer programming jobs, everybody smoked. Our ADM-3A terminals had cigarette burns on them.

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#102

Post by metabagel »

paulpauper wrote: post #77
dylan604 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If only BigSugar could have a day in court like BigTobacco. Sugar addiction is the next big social health care type of thing I'd like to see recognized. Yes, opiates are bad right now, but I don't think anyone would have ever denied it out side of the people making/selling. Great majority people do not even recognize sugar as a problem.

no one is getting stage 4 lung cancer from sugar. Or having their jaw removed due to mouth cancer . Or hooked up to one of those oxygen machines due to irreversible lung damage. Sure, there are risks with obesity, not not as lethal or causal as with tobacco products. Fats are also a major contributor too, like steak.

It’s addictive and leads to obesity. Obesity is a leading cause of cancer.

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#105

Post by heavyset_go »

j_m_b wrote: post #7

It's tough to portray just how ubiquitous smoking was to a modern audience. You would go to a restaurant and the first thing your hostess would ask is "smoking or non"? I remember standing in a checkout line in the 80s as a child and being fascinated with the billowing clouds of smoke an old lady blew. I remember coming home from bars reeking of smoke, even though I didn't. Even teachers had their own lounges that re…

I was just thinking about how family-oriented restaurants, where you'd typically go to take your young kids out to eat, would have smoking and non-smoking sections. No barriers, just one side of the dining room you could smoke and the other you can't. Millions of parents would regularly take their kids to these places.

These days, it's often a crime to smoke in the car with kids, and exposure to second-hand smoke is seen as child abuse[1], both of which are good things. It's just an interesting contrast to me.

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4369587/

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#106

Post by Keyframe »

camillomiller wrote: post #88
Stratoscope wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Smoking or non? Looks like you're about 25 years younger than me. When I was a kid, there was no such thing as a nonsmoking section. Of course you could smoke, anywhere! Us kids didn't get real tobacco cigarettes, but we always had candy cigarettes so we could "smoke" along with the grown-ups. https://www.google.com/search?q=candy+cigarette&tbm=isch One difference from today was that our candy cigarettes had brand na…

Smoking on planes is absolutely something I can't wrap my head around in any possible way. How the hell someone EVER thought it would be a good idea to let people smoke while packed inside a flying metal cylinder?

And buses!

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#107

Post by metabagel »

paulpauper wrote: post #77
dylan604 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If only BigSugar could have a day in court like BigTobacco. Sugar addiction is the next big social health care type of thing I'd like to see recognized. Yes, opiates are bad right now, but I don't think anyone would have ever denied it out side of the people making/selling. Great majority people do not even recognize sugar as a problem.

no one is getting stage 4 lung cancer from sugar. Or having their jaw removed due to mouth cancer . Or hooked up to one of those oxygen machines due to irreversible lung damage. Sure, there are risks with obesity, not not as lethal or causal as with tobacco products. Fats are also a major contributor too, like steak.

There doesn’t seem to be any relationship between dietary fat and cancer.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12566141/

There is a huge relationship between obesity and cancer.

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#108

Post by bruce511 »

paulpauper wrote: post #77
dylan604 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If only BigSugar could have a day in court like BigTobacco. Sugar addiction is the next big social health care type of thing I'd like to see recognized. Yes, opiates are bad right now, but I don't think anyone would have ever denied it out side of the people making/selling. Great majority people do not even recognize sugar as a problem.

no one is getting stage 4 lung cancer from sugar. Or having their jaw removed due to mouth cancer . Or hooked up to one of those oxygen machines due to irreversible lung damage. Sure, there are risks with obesity, not not as lethal or causal as with tobacco products. Fats are also a major contributor too, like steak.

You disregard diabetes rather lightly there. Diabetes can result in amputations, blindness, heart attacks, strokes and other fun things.

Sure there are other food choices that lead to obesity, but sugar is certainly high on the list.

One thing in common though is that telling a smoker to "just quit" is about the same as telling someone who likes sugar to "just stop". Personally I'm working to "reduce my intake", slowly but surely.

Edit:but for sure there's no such thing as second-hand-sugar and that a Huge difference between the two.

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#110

Post by [deleted] »

bentobean wrote: post #89

To each their own, but personally - I don’t find them beautiful or nostalgic at all. They remind me of the stench of stale smoke and death. > “Even if your parents don’t smoke, it’s nice for them to have an ashtray available for guests.” …the thought of someone trying to light up a cig in my house. Haha. No.

[deleted]
Post reply on HN