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It may seem like I oppose any and all regulation of cigarettes and ecigarettes, but I think this is actually a pretty good use of anti-tobacco energy. Better tax increases, which are probably ineffective, and deceptively named “plain packaging laws” that are repugnant whether effective of not.

While the US continues to go off its rocker on the subject, David Cameron sees ecigarettes as a legitimate path to cessation and an NHS Board has reversed a previous decision to ban ecigarettes on hospital grounds.

In the UK, young people are experimenting with ecigarettes, but non-smokers aren’t regularly using, and according to a survey in the US, American teen users are avoiding nicotine. (Yeah, I’m a bit skeptical on the latter one, but hopeful!)

Coffee reorganizes the brain! Quick! Regulate it! I’ll bet the flavoring they put in it is just to addict children.

This post on the continued strength of piracy makes the faulty assumption that everything pirated should be purchased, but otherwise makes a pretty good point about streaming not being an especially good defense by content-producers against it.

Forensics looks at the link between racial hate crimes and Internet access in the early last decade.

I cannot overstate my complete and total lack of surprise that Japan’s idol industry is sexually coercive. Not entirely unrelated.

Wil Wheaton thinks writers should be paid. I think for Wil Wheaton, that is a good point. Also, Harlan Ellison. The “unique platform” provides more for some than others.

The little cabinet department that could, and did, and almost never found reason to stop doing anything.

I, too, lament the end of the custom of children referring to adults by Mr and Mrs, but that ship has sailed. {A cackling response}

Finland’s schooling sounds almost like unschooling at times, compared to our increasingly rigid regimen.

The TV show Friends is allegedly having a resurgence among New York youngsters.


Category: Newsroom

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One Response to Linkluster Quatre Cent Trente-Quatre

  1. I have mixed feelings on the using last name thing. I’m mostly for using last names. When I was a bank teller, we were taught/encouraged to use customers’ names, and in practice that usually meant using first names. As a 22-/23-year-old, I felt ridiculous calling, say, a 60-year-old customer by his or her first name. I don’t think it’s only about respecting elders, though. It’s also about respecting strangers. I often call adults who are well-younger than I “Mr./Ms.” until they say it’s okay to use first names or start using my first name. (I used to do this on blogs, and that just comes off as pretentious. Now I use “Mr./Ms.” on blogs only when I want to establish some distance from the person.)

    At the same time, I believe that not using Mr./Ms. isn’t necessarily disrespectful (I think Larkins almost makes this concession.) I called several of my friends’ parents by their first name (but only after they invited me to do so), and I still wouldn’t flout their house rules or whatever. I called my aunt by her first name (instead of “Aunt so and so,” ad yet if I was ever rude to her (e.g., by interrupting, or saying something sarcastic), I’d be sure to hear about it from her and my parents.

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