h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A little out of date, but...

http://www.qwghlm.co.uk/toys/dailymail/

Just keep clicking!

RF

THAT was worth a laugh!

my sis is 18 for your info.
hold on. she's 19.
oops. sorry sis!

Don't worry sis!
Oh. By the way that other pub that is near dads, its going under. I was having a chat with the owners yesterday and they have decided to pack up and sell it.
where will i go after a long day at work
Jokes!( as you say sis)
Im no alcoholic, but i like chatting to the owners, they are very nice people.

the pub near dads is gone.
the new people want to turn it into a resturant!
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

"Motorists who smoke at the wheel could be prosecuted under a new rule in the latest edition of the Highway Code"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7017543.stm

What made me laugh was - "If you're lighting up with one hand and have a fag in the other hand then obviously you've not got any hands on the wheel."

Does this moronic busybody have any idea how to light a cigarette?

probably not.

Obviously by holding at arms length, pointing away from the face.

Oh. Wait. That only applies if you're smoking a firework.

I hate the word busybody its so mindlessly prejorative.

The people who leave their children drugged up in hotle rooms probably precieve those who try to stop people doing that sort of thing as interfering busybodies

It would be moronic to presume that all drivers employ both hands simultaneously to light cigarettes while driving, but he clearly states "if you are using both hands" and although in most times Ive seen people lighting up while driving they havent some douse both hands.


It is a shame when any small scale retail business where people can spend time chatting to other people in their community closes, but that has been happening more and more to corner shops and pubs for long time. This is due to pressure from large chains and people tending to spend their boozing time more often in "glitzy" centre of town bar/restaurant/club complexes than local pubs. Likewise the corner shop has fallen victim to WalMart, Tesco and enclosed shopping malls.

One place where smoking has been baned for a long time is on airline planes. There werent any morons saying "BA will go out of business because people wont want to get on a plane without smoking. They will just stay at home and while they enjoy a few ciggies they will drink small bottles of wine and eat crappy food out of dinky plastic trays with fiddly plastic utensils now". Did they? Maybe someone did and I missed the chance to call them a moron.

onelove

"There werent any morons saying "BA will go out of business because people wont want to get on a plane without smoking. They will just stay at home and while they enjoy a few ciggies they will drink small bottles of wine and eat crappy food out of dinky plastic trays with fiddly plastic utensils now". Did they?"

Yeah. Because that makes perfect sense.



"Oh, I won't go on holiday because I can't smoke for a few hours of said holiday" is obviously exactly the same as "I'll drink with my friends at home where I can smoke 100% of the evening as opposed to the pub where I can't smoke at all."

I have *never* seen anyone use both hands to light a cigarette.

The idea that anyone would suddenly decide to use both hands to do so whilst driving is preposterous.

It is quite clear that, if the quote is accurate, this person has never smoked a cigarette in his life. How is he therefore qualified to comment on how distracting it may or may not be? He doesn't have a clue, hence the moronic tag.

No it doesnt make perfect sense and that was my point.

"Oh, I won't go on holiday because I can't smoke for a few hours of said holiday" is obviously exactly the same as "I'll drink with my friends at home where I can smoke 100% of the evening as opposed to the pub where I can't smoke at all."

Well no not exactly the same but close enough to be a useful idea to explore.

I dont go to the pub all the time although I like it there because its a time consuming and expensive affair. Well more expensive than sitting in watching a DVD say.

A lot of people go from pub to pub its not unusual for people to visit two or three pubs so if you count walking to the first pub to the next pub and then home there are three opportunities for sparking up.

When I had a batchelor pad I didnt have single mates, ladies or coupples round every night or even every weekend night. Simply because we prefered to be out in other peoples company and to see what was going on. usre there were some parties and a few quite drinks with a few mates or one lucky lady

Yet the pub was a place we wanted to go. We could get drunk anywhere but the pub was about the atmosphere. If you are willing to forgoe that in preference ot the liberty to pollute your own and other peoples lungs then to those people I say good riddance.

Now Im really struggling to understand the mindset of people who cant handle the huge "loss of liberty" and the immessurable inconvinience of nipping out the door of the pub for a fag. Who here is saying they are going to forgoe a career and regular wages because they can no longer smoke at work. Yet we are supposed to shed tears for the tender spirited people who cant handle the chilly night air and have to stay at home because of the smoking "ban".


Ive realy tried to muster some sympathy up for these people but my overriding thought and feeling is:

Sod 'em

http://images.jupiterimages.com/common/detail/29/16/22561629.jpg

http://www.takingontobacco.org/photos/ro/winstonlightup.jpg

http://photos.somd.com/data/500/medium/lighting_a_cigarette2.jpg

http://cache.viewimages.com/xc/3304117.jpg?v=1&c=ViewImages&k=2&d=BAA3E61C514E7EC6DB014AA629E167ABA55A1E4F32AD3138

OK Ive restrained myself to just four links and in the first two it is one of the smoker's hands and one hand of the lighter's being used for the job, but even with my Thatcher era comprehensive education I can still work out that one plus one is two.

Yeah most of the cigarette lighting photos I found using the search engine were of people lighting them with one hand a trick even a ham fisted oaf like me can manage but sometimes people Ive seen and I myself use two hands, but I found five on the first page which shows people using two hands in what appear to be unposed photographs.

You might not have seen a lot of things doesnt mean they dont happen. Thinking that simply because you havent seen they dont happen is moronic.

one love

Umm

Link 1 - The smoker is using one hand
Link 2 - The smoker is using one hand
Link 3 & 4 - The smoker is outdoors using one hand to shield the flame from the wind. Wind is not normally present in a car.

Whose point are you trying to prove Blicky?

Ive proved the point, why are you trying to move the goalposts and go on about the smoker only using one hand. I have mentioned that the smokers only use one of theirwon hands but thye are still using two hands. Ive also posted two other links where the smoker is using both of their own hands I could have easily found others. Each and everyone would have disproved your moronic assertion that because you havent seen people using two hands to light a cigarette that it doesnt happen.

Yes they are outside and it's true that inside a car their isnt a great deal of wind, but just to keep you un-happy:

http://www.johninjapan.com/images/stories/izakaya-hdr.jpg

http://www.worldofstock.com/thumbs/PHE1715.jpg

To be honest I thought this thread had died a death a long time ago and didnt even look in but I was pleasantly surprised to see some people still wailling about not being allowed to pollute indoor public areas with noxious gases from a totally unecessary pass time of theirs.

If people here want people driving around distracted by feeding their habit and without their hands on the wheel for that purpose, several times on long motorway journeys, I suggest you go somewhere that is totally acceptable. Me I like the new laws they sound sensible and safe.

Once again I say this as a smoker on the occasions when I want to smoke I dont see that my fowl habit that grips me shopuld mean other people have to be exposed to either short or long term risks. What's wrong with that level of consideration for other peoples' welfare?

one love

What you do with chickens or ducks is no concern of mine

Yeah - I gave up the smoking in pubs debate a long time ago too. The nanny state won that one comprehensively. Not on any scientific evidence about passive smoking, (there's none), but on the potential risk of future law cases and the earth-shattering argument that "smoking stinks". Even the HSE seem to agree that passive smoking illnesses are a fallacy. This from the Leicester Mercury, on the letters page earlier this year. "advice in Health and Safety Executive Operational Circular OC 255/15 07/08/2006, Second Hand Smoking [SHS] Guidance For Inspectors... "The evidential link between individual circumstances of exposure to risk in exempted premises will be hard to establish. In essence, HSE cannot produce epidemiological evidence to link levels of exposure to SHS to the raised risk of contracting specific diseases and it is therefore difficult to prove health-related breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act..."

What brought this back up is this ridiculous intrusion into private cars now. The smoking with one hands/two hands issue has to be seen in the context of inside a car. We were talking about smoking in cars remember? Then you come up with pics taken in pubs, clubs and outdoors.

As the article states - there is no evidence of smoking being a contributory factor in accidents. It's a non-issue.

I can't really understand why this attack on the civil liberties of a minority is supported at all. OK, nobody has the right to make someone else's clothes smell , but why pursue smokers with such vindictive glee? You cite an example of people sparking up outside between pubs? You can't do that in Canada as smokers are banned from a certain distance of doorways - effectively making city streets non-smoking. This was something Jack McConnel was keen to introduce here. You can't smoke anywhere outside in the grounds of a hospital - not even inside your own car whilst it is stationary! There are moves afoot in Scotland to ban smoking outdoors on any council land and on beaches.

I think with rollies you are more likely to be using two hands to light up. But then you'd need two hands to do the rolling as well

True. And you need two hands for a pipe.

I was once in a Post Office van as the driver rolled a cigarette - as we drove round a roundabout at 40mph and he steered using his elbows

>>
Yeah - I gave up the smoking in pubs debate a long time ago too.
<<

Apparently not...

<<
The nanny state won that one comprehensively. Not on any scientific evidence about passive smoking, (there's none), but on the potential risk of future law cases and the earth-shattering argument that "smoking stinks". Even the HSE seem to agree that passive smoking illnesses are a fallacy. This from the Leicester Mercury, on the letters page earlier this year. "advice in Health and Safety Executive Operational Circular OC 255/15 07/08/2006, Second Hand Smoking [SHS] Guidance For Inspectors... "The evidential link between individual circumstances of exposure to risk in exempted premises will be hard to establish. In essence, HSE cannot produce epidemiological evidence to link levels of exposure to SHS to the raised risk of contracting specific diseases and it is therefore difficult to prove health-related breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act..."
<<

Even if we leave aside the contracting of specific illnesses from passive smoking, there are the effects for people who are already ill eg asthmatics, people with sinus problems, people with chemical sensitivities. To portray the whole thing as being about 'smell' is disingenuous and/or denying people who DO get ill from being around smoke their reality.

By all means oppose the control of smoking in public places, but at least be honest about the fact that you think that people's right to pollute is more important than people's right to not have their health diminished by said pollution.

That's alright, I once got a lift between cities with a friend who, at 100km/hr, asked me to take the drivers wheel from the passenger seat while she took her jersey off over her head. I declined