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The Disappearance of the Ashtray

clivethompson.medium.com

541–550 of 668 posts

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#541

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't disagree but prior to ww2's investment into R&D, infrastructure and labor force the economics of the industry were fundamentally different. The 1950s and early 1960s were to airlines what the 1990s were for computing.

Go read about Pan Am in the 1920s and 1930s & you will think differently. They were busy building global transportation routes with whatever technology they could get their hands on.

There's a really good docudrama on Amazon, Across the Pacific, that covers the early days of Pan Am:

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B0888MFZR2/

(Using a smile link while I still can... Change it to www if it doesn't work in the future.)

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#542

A more meta thought about ashtrays - I just want to point out that we can do things if we want to. In the last few years I have heard many young people depressed, lethargic, and only see doom and gloom because of some self-destructive behaviors. I want to remind them that there is not only possibility but likely probability that we can and will correct ourselves. Think about when we started smoking cigarettes. I dist…

I hate to be that guy, but to me these two don't connect.

Yes we as a society corrected our mistake, but the transition from "Everyone smoking" to "Barely anyone smoking" consisted of most smokers dying and the rest not repeating their mistakes.

Me or my brothers most probably will never be smokers. I have absolutely no doubt my parents, uncle and aunt will smoke their way to the grave, same as my grandparents did.

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#543
post #407

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?

What about smoking in restaurants? You're trying to enjoy the taste of delicious food, and suddenly the tobacco smoke from the next table wafts into your nostrils. Bizarre that that was ever considered normal.

I was in morocco last month. everyone smokes there. I'd just be minding my own business whne randos would start lighting up next to me indoors. absolutely zero consideration for how nonsmokers feel about it.

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#544

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?

Not sure if it's still allowed in Japan, but I still recall walking through a smoking car on a bullet train on my way to my non-smoking car about 20 years ago and my god, I'm pretty sure there was zero ventilation with the whole car smoking. I had to hold my breath from one end to the other, it was so intense. I can't fathom how people could survive a whole train ride in there while also smoking themselves. I wouldn'…

I took the Shinkansen on my last trip to Japan in 2016 and I didn't see any smoking cars, but there were closed-off smoking rooms available on the train with really good ventilation systems.

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#545
post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Smoking risks is one of the few thing in which it cannot be overstated. Unlike other forms of safety-ism.

Smoking tobacco, as far as I know, does not make one spontaneously explode. To say otherwise, in my view, would be overstating the risks of smoking.

Smoking is thought to be one of the leading causes of spontaneous human combustion.

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#546

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's still ubiquitous in China, or at least was when I was there several years ago. On the other hand, perhaps because of that, some of their buildings seem to have insanely powerful ventilation systems. I remember being in a mall and talking with someone who was smoking only a few feet away, seeing the smoke get sucked straight up into the vents on the ceiling as he exhaled, and I couldn't even smell it (I have a ra…

Many Vegas casinos have similar ventilation systems, it’s amazing to be near smokers and barely smell it.

[deleted]

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#547
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 remember going to the hardware store when I was 8 to buy my dad a pouch of pipe tobacco. It was on a rack right next to the register, where today we see candy. The clerk didn't even think twice about me purchasing it.

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#548

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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", slow…

> Edit:but for sure there's no such thing as second-hand-sugar and that a Huge difference between the two. Obesity can cause epigenetic changes that are passed down to offspring.

True, and a person's diet choices can absolutely impact others. From a parents choice of what to feed their children to a school's selling out of all health for cheap corporate shit meals, even down to a road trip participants insistence on specific eating location. We are not always perfectly in control of our eating choices. Sure in a perfect world we'd all have the time and space and money to carry our own food but as someone who grew up with crohns' disease I think people strongly underestimate how make situations reduce eating choice to only cheap, bad, sugar filled processed foods. Every pizza or ice cream party (of which my school had many), every birthday, every sleep over, every time my brother cried about wanting to eat out. Forcing yourself to eat natural healthy food in America often involves the choice to not eat.

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#549
post #490

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?

I read somewhere that banning smoking on planes lead to a lot of deep vein thrombosis cases, as they didn't need to swap the air out as much leading to higher c02 levels. But stupid shortsightedness aside; it was crazy, they needed to put the smokers (which was me at the time) at the back of the plane as that's the direction of the airflow inside, but the toilets were at the back so everyone had to walk through the s…

BuildsJets here with your aviation trivia. Cabin Air Quality requirements generally have become a lot more stringent since they were first enacted back in December 1964.

Previously, only the crew was required to be supplied with fresh air, the rest of the cabin was required to be "ventilated" but no ventilation rate was specified, so it was frequently turned off to save fuel or increase power. (This is approved and is still done on some older generation aircraft that are still in service, for instance the Boeing 737NG for certain high performance situations, search 737 Packs Off Takeoff) The current requirement is .55 lbs of outside air per minute per passenger minimum, through all phases of flight. Permissible CO2 has been reduced from 3% in 1964 to 0.5%. today. The carbon monoxide requirement is unchanged at 1 part per 20,000. Multiple other requirement changes, but those are the ones that are specific and measurable.

Current requirements are published in 14 CFR 25.831: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-14/chapter-I/subchapter-C...

Original requirements are on page 47 of this PDF: https://archives.federalregister.gov/issue_slice/1964/12/24/...

Re: The Disappearance of the Ashtray

#550

The plummeting rates of smoking in the US is one of the rare areas where this country really shines when it comes to social welfare. Even many European states that have what I'd consider much more progressive social welfare systems have smoking rates that are appalling, often 3x or more the US rates.

> The plummeting rates of smoking in the US Do you consider vaping in this statistics? I can't find a definite answer.

Amazing that I scrolled this far to see any mention of vaping. I don't believe the stat can include vaping - it's anecdotal, but nearly 100% of the amigas I know vape. No amigos however, strangely enough. I think it's an anxiety thing. No amigos or amigas that smoke cigarettes habitually though.

I still see more cigarettes than vapes at bars, but the gap is closing. The annoying part is people seem to think they can vape indoors at the bar, whereas 95% will go to the covered patio to smoke. So vapes are more likely to get into your lungs second hand, and their long term effect on your lungs is entirely unknown. Hooray!

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