The Effect of Cigarette Prices on Youth Smoking
From the abstract of this 2001 University of Illinois paper (click above):
‘The results confirm that higher cigarette prices, irrespective of the way they are measured, reduce youth cigarette smoking.’
The paper also found that:
‘If state average prices would rise by $0.50 (i.e. 26.5%), the youth cigarette demand can decline by 17.5 percent: participation would drop from 27.8 to 24.8 percent and the average monthly consumption would decrease from 139 to 130 cigarettes.’
Obviously, this is not new research, and prices have risen over the past decade, but it seems to me that it is any and every Government’s clear and unequivocal responsibility not to be cowed by the tobacco lobby and to continue to reduce smoking rates amongst young people. If price rises are successful in doing this, then price rises we should have.
Of course, the strength of the tobacco lobby is far greater in the USA than here in the UK, but the paper is still highly relevant. Another interesting point is that the largest effect comes from the perceived price of cigarettes: education and society must paint smoking as an expensive habit, as this has a powerful effect in preventing young people from taking up the destructive habit.
This page lets you create your own Star Wars introduction crawls! It’s quite good fun, actually.
Bad Jokes
hypertroll: I might not watch Wimbledon this year, it’s always a bit hit-and-miss.
Me: Yeah, same with me and the Tour de France - it’s up and down, really. Highs and lows.
hypertroll: I always feel as if i should be nice about the Formula 1 drivers. After all, what goes around, comes around.
Karate Kick Embarrassing Fail (by schofio)
Well worth a watch if you fancy a laugh! This is a good use of a Physics lesson!
Coursework… if you can’t do it, take photos of it!
A recent game I played in the Bristol League, and an important lesson on why it is important, in the Grünfeld defence, not to let White keep the big centre without capitalising on your development advantage!
Interior of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, taken whilst I was up there for interview late last year. Christ Church is unique as both a college and the Cathedral Church of the diocese of Oxford.
The Matterhorn, Zermatt, Switzerland, taken just after Christmas last year.
The Top 10 Logical Fallacies in Everyday Arguments
Ad hominem
Tries to counter an argument by attacking the person, rather than addressing the argument itself.
Ad ignorantiam
States that a specific belief is true because we don’t know that it isn’t true.
Argument from authority
Argues that something is true because a respected individual (an individual with authority) says it is.
Correlation implies causation
Fairly self-explanatory. Correlation DOES NOT imply causation.
False Dichotomy
Reducing a set of many possibilities to only two, in order to make a choice seem obvious when it is not.
Non sequitur
“Doesn’t follow”. When the conclusion of an argument does not follow from its premises.
Post hoc ergo propter hoc
“After this, therefore because of this”. Implies that because B happened after A, A must have caused B.
Straw Man
Misrepresenting an argument in order to make it easier to argue against.
Tu quoque
“You too”. Justifying an action because someone else did it first, or damning a claim because its proposer has not adhered to it in the past.
Ignoratio elenchi
Presenting an argument which, although it may be true, is not relevant to the topic in hand.
Flour Fireballs - A totally safe experiment…
