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The Disappearance of the Ashtray

clivethompson.medium.com

361–370 of 668 posts

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#361
post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can definitely buy pouches of tobacco to be used like snus in the UK (and I'm almost certain that was the case before Brexit, too). Unless "snus" has some specific definition that's illegal and the UK sells an alternative? Not sure, last time I tried snus was in Finland over a decade ago.

Actual snus(powdered tabbaco sold and advertised as a product you put up your nose) isn't legal for sale in the UK: https://www.buynicotinepouches.co.uk/blogs/news/buying-snus-...

How is snus different from snuff? Cursory google seems to suggest you can buy snuff in the UK, which is also powdered tobacco that you put up your nose

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#362
post #327
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…

In France in the 80s and 90s there was no such thing as a non-smoking section in restaurants. You could smoke anywhere, everywhere, anytime, all of the time. In high school our teachers would smoke, not in class but in the corridor leading to the classroom, and they would drop their cigarette buts on the door sill. People would smoke in cars continuously, including my parents when we were toddlers. It was forbidden t…

I had a music teacher whose lessons consisted of his dictating to us from the back of an LP sleeve whilst smoking a pipe. Bizarrely, I remember rather a lot of his lessons.

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actual snus(powdered tabbaco sold and advertised as a product you put up your nose) isn't legal for sale in the UK: https://www.buynicotinepouches.co.uk/blogs/news/buying-snus-...

How is snus different from snuff? Cursory google seems to suggest you can buy snuff in the UK, which is also powdered tobacco that you put up your nose

Uhm, frankly I'm not sure. Quick Google reveals a few differences but I'm not sure why one is banned while the other one isn't.

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You misspelled "can't be bothered to contribute to the wellbeing of the people around us". Incidentally, you think wearing a rated mask for a couple hours qualifies as "suffering"? When did notionally adult humans get this soft? Try working 10 hours straight in a tyvek bunny suit and full face respiratory PPE. We'd be carting you off my jobsite in a wheelbarrow after 30 minutes.

I do contribute to the wellbeing of the 95+% of the people who choose not to wear a mask and want to engage in human connection with the full range of emotional and facial expressiveness we were blessed with for that purpose, by not focusing on the irrational belief that wearing PPE 24/7 is even remotely possible or desirable, and accepting the statistical reality that in 2023, the vast majority of the population hav…

The discussion was about wearing a mask when on a plane, not about wearing 24/7. Nobody asked for that so don't straw man it.

In some Asian countries it was already common courtesy to wear a mask if you even suspect you might have a respiratory disease before Covid. Saying everyone suspecting a respiratory disease should stay at home is fine but detached from reality, people need to go places.

Ergo, wearing a mask in closed spaces is a compromise between being grounded and being an a** h***.

Edit:

About this

> I do contribute to the wellbeing of the 95+% of the people who choose not to wear a mask and want to engage in human connection with the full range of emotional and facial expressiveness we were blessed with for that purpose

What exactly is the benefit strangers in a closed space (like public transportation) get from seeing your facial expressions? What kind of human connection do you expect with strangers on public transportation? Believing the viewing of your face to be to the benefit of the public is narcissism unlike any other.

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#365

In the UK we had big pub ashtrays that doubled as advertisements, being adorned with the names and logos of (now mostly vanished) beer or spirits brands. Naturally these would often find their way into smokers' homes.

Yes, this was exactly my thought. An ashtray to my mind is a beer branded plastic type thing. They also weren't entirely fireproof so they were often slightly melted if someone left a lit cigarette on it, or the contents set on fire.

My grandparents ashtrays were ornate glass structures though.

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#366
post #306
post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, some of them. Everyone was fed up with the smoky places. Actually some bigger places were both smoking and non smoking before. I had a friend who was a smoker. He always chose the non-smoking part and then he moved to the non smoking part whenever he wanted to smoke. The previous law was useless as only places with over 60 square meters were required to have a non smoking part, so most bars were smaller and excl…

Hotels used to have smoking and non-smoking rooms around here until some years ago. Now they are all fully non-smoking, and if they notice that a room smells of smoke after you leave your credit card will be charged (a lot ), for cleanup. All written up front when you check in.

[deleted]

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#367
I am so glad smoking is prohibited in public places. I can't stand it all, and my wife is allergic to it. Next I would love to see more restrictions on driving loud noised cars and bikes, every time I see a Harley owner ride by with a loud noise or a truck owner drive by, I can't feel anything but contempt for such lowlife humans who have no regards for other people's and animals' sensitivities.

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

[flagged]

Once at a Farnborough air show many years back there was a display from an aircraft maintenance company with small sections of the skin of old airliners. On those if there was a small imperfection of the metal skin or the seal to the window or a door you could actually see a brown smear of nicotine on the white painted skin. It allowed ground staff to spot problems at an early stage.

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is snus different from snuff? Cursory google seems to suggest you can buy snuff in the UK, which is also powdered tobacco that you put up your nose

Uhm, frankly I'm not sure. Quick Google reveals a few differences but I'm not sure why one is banned while the other one isn't.

Snuff is probably culturally significant. Despite never knowing anyone who takes snuff you still read about snuff and snuff boxes. In fact I seem to recall that some people still call the webbing between your thumb and index finger the "snuff box" because that's where people would put the snuff before insufflating it.

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They get less visually dirty, but the same amount of human breath passes through them. It's not just that; the airlines cut the fresh air intake as a portion of circulated air. By not being as visually noticeable, they didn't need to change the filters as often; yet that meant that the filters would have 5x the viral load when they were finally changed out. They used the elimination of smoking as an excuse to save mo…

You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. Where did you even hear about this specific number in how often they used to change their filters vs now? Do you have any idea what the reasons are for them changing filters, how they decide? What the minimum is? How they measure it? You seem to not really even understand how air filtration works.

If one day people aren't allowed to smoke, does the volume of air passing through the filter drop by 80%?

Do all the other particulates, e.g. viruses and bacteria, drop by 80%?

No? So what makes you think the filter needs to be changed 1/5th as often?

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