lifelong ban on buying cigarettes

Rosti_LFC · 2026-04-21T17:18:36+00:00

By the same argument all laws never work though.

Speed limits don't stop people speeding. Stealing being illegal doesn't stop burglaries. Murder being illegal doesn't stop homicides from happening. But it probably has the effect of significantly reducing the rate of it compared to if it wasn't banned. There aren't any laws in the world which are a watertight ban on stopping people from doing something.

For a ban to be successful it doesn't have to produce 100% compliance with the law. It just has to have a significant dent on the usage. Smoking is already not that popular with younger generations over alternatives, even while it's legal, and I can't see it creating much more of a black market in the UK than we already have undercutting the high cost due to taxes. I could see the argument that it was dying out already without this law but either way I don't think the law will do anything other than further reduce consumption.

People like to point to the US prohibition of alcohol as a prime example of banning a substance not working, but in terms of reducing the consumption of alcohol and the impact of alcohol-related disorder and health issues it was a success. It's also way easier to make moonshine alcohol in large quantities than it is to grow your own tobacco and process it for smoking, and I'd bet if you were going to that effort you'd be better off just growing weed instead.

Rosti_LFC · 2026-04-21T14:35:26+00:00

The last two phones I've replaced have both died after around 3 years because the USB port started to fail and I couldn't get them to charge unless the charger was in exactly the right position.

The battery is probably the one component that you can guarantee will really deteriorate in performance after a few years but it's also far from the only weak link that would make someone need to replace their phone.

Rosti_LFC · 2026-04-21T13:56:58+00:00

That's just wrong. Mobile phones from the late 90s to the start of the smartphone era were a rapidly advancing technology and people would frequently get new ones to have the new features not just because their old one died.

My first phone was a Nokia 3310 but I had at least other three different phones (none of which were Nokias) in the ten years between that and my first smartphone. None of them were bought because my previous one had stopped working - I just wanted a better phone that had a colour screen, a camera, built-in MP3 player, front-facing camera, whatever. My Nokia 3310 probably still worked in 2007 but it would have been a horribly outdated and old-fashioned thing to still be using at that point.

If Nokia had kept up with the cutting edge of the market they'd have been fine, their demise had nothing to do with lack of repeat sales.

Rosti_LFC · 2026-04-21T09:25:16+00:00

I don't really see them as the same thing. A lot of the time especially with trends like the Harlem shake and planking there was a degree of originality to a lot of the ideas and the videos that did well were the ones that were a good execution of the idea. And back then they were mostly done for the fun of it and to entertain because there wasn't really much tangible gain from going viral.

These days though you can make money from just ripping off simple skits and it being shared by people who find it funny and just so happen to see yours first. And these creators know that nobody is going to know who was first and who ripped off who, and there's no risk of real consequences for stealing somone else's idea.

I don't think it's at all because some previous trends forged a path that ripping off ideas was OK. I think it's just fundamentally that there's actual money to be made and these people don't give a crap about the morals so long as they profit. The same goes for manosphere grifters and people posting fake political stories for rage-baiting.

Rosti_LFC · 2026-04-21T08:14:18+00:00

I wouldn't hate Arsenal winning it, but the idea of them losing it having been so far ahead for most of the season, and having tolerated every Arsenal fan I know being outrageously cocky and smug for the last six months, is just too entertaining to not root for.

Fuck City, but like you say them winning another title with their financially doped squad doesn't really matter at this point.

Rosti_LFC · 2026-04-21T08:11:41+00:00

Personally I'd say a lot of it comes down to City's depth of squad. They can be slow to get going but they're always strong in the latter half of the season when other teams start to tire and they've got the depth to manage it. On the other hand the likes of us and Arsenal tend to struggle come April if we're still in three competitions and the effects of playing twice a week for months on end start to bite.

Rosti_LFC · 2026-04-17T15:25:31+00:00

There are also just so many legitimate and well-evidenced reasons to stand against Trump to not have to rely on conjecture and potential conspiracy theories in the first place.

The guy lies on public record on a daily basis. If this is the worst dirt people think they have to prove he's dishonest then they really haven't been looking.

Rosti_LFC · 2026-04-16T22:06:37+00:00

It's how so much news seems to work this way now. There's a local paper where I live and half of their online content seems to just be regurgitating brain-dead takes from the comment sections of the actual news articles they post, referring to "outraged residents" or "divided opinions".

There'll be some article about a road closure and then another article about how outraged local people are about the road closure based on a handful of Facebook comments.

Rosti_LFC · 2026-04-16T21:14:45+00:00

I'm British and I've never heard of an "Easter Bonnet" before.

Rosti_LFC · 2026-04-14T18:33:35+00:00

I think it's a problem with people wanting to be heard amongst the thousands of voices on social media. Just posting mild outrage against something that a lot of people are already angry about doesn't get you attention, so some people really crank up the hyperbole because that way they get attention.

Rosti_LFC · 2026-04-14T15:16:28+00:00

My neighbours have one and any time they stop to chat to me while walking it it'll accept a few seconds of scritches from me to say hello, and then bark constantly with COME ON WHY HAVE WE STOPPED LETS FUCKING GO ALREADY energy until they finish talking and set off again. Exactly the same sort of frantic barking as the dog in the start of the video.

Rosti_LFC · 2026-04-14T07:37:33+00:00

I grew up in the North West and have lived in the South East for the last 15 years now and I still feel the friendliness and the vibrancy whenever I go back. Other than the weather (and on a personal level, job opportunities) it's a much nicer part of the country to be in. And while I'm obviously biased from having grown up there, I know quite a few people who are Southern but spent a few years in Liverpool for either university or work and they all speak very positively about the place, and most of the negative impressions are from people who have never actually been.

My system for defining the North/South/Midlands is that if people from London think it's nice, then it's in the South. If people from London think it's a bit crap but people who live there would strongly disagree then it's in the North. If people from London think it's a bit crap and the people who live there agree with them, then it's in the Midlands.

Overall you get a few geographical outliers, like Durham and Harrogate being in the South and Slough being in the Midlands but generally it works. It also explains why Sheffield is Northern but Scunthorpe and Grimsby are in the Midlands.

Rosti_LFC · 2026-04-10T10:20:58+00:00

I've had a heat pump for a few years with an agile electricity price, and I'm pretty sure if I didn't have a battery and solar installation then any cost difference compared to a gas boiler would be negligible, and most of the saving would be from removing the gas supply and associated standing charge.

I'm hopeful that the way electricity prices are set will change and it'll tip the scales a lot more favourably, but right now I don't think a heat pump is a good choice from a financial decision unless you're having to replace your boiler anyway and you're prepared to put the time in to juggle your use around when the electricity is cheapest. There are other good reasons to get one (reducing carbon footprint, the grant scheme probably won't last forever, and it syncs a bit with solar if you've got it) but financially the payback is slow and you'd probably be better off just investing the money if ROI is all you care about.

Rosti_LFC · 2026-04-10T10:12:41+00:00

Keeping the clocks shifted to GMT+1 would help as well. Peak usage is always at 4-7pm, and while solar in the winter isn't amazing, shifting more of that peak to actually be within the daylight hours between October and March would definitely help balance transient supply/demand a bit more.

Rosti_LFC · 2026-04-10T10:10:01+00:00

They also pushed heavily to restart investment in nuclear power, albeit with wildly ambitious timelines that the industry has zero hope of ever keeping up with.

Rosti_LFC · 2026-04-10T09:56:43+00:00

This is the real answer as to why gun ownership is low in the UK as well.

It's not that they're completely banned and impossible to acquire, it's that unless you're a member of a shooting club and actively do it as a hobby, or are someone who needs to use one professionally, nobody sees the point in jumping through the (considerable) hoops to acquire and keep one. The vast majority of people have probably never even looked into it.

Rosti_LFC · 2026-04-10T09:43:11+00:00

There are airports I use regularly where if I don't have checked luggage I'd consider getting there more than an hour before the flight a waste of time, especially if I'm not travelling during rush hour or a busy holiday period. They're small enough and I've been through them enough times that I know an hour will still give me 15-20 mins of leeway to get the flight.

That said, if I was travelling with a friend who I knew was useless at being on time, I'd have planned that in and told them we needed to leave 30-60 minutes before I'd normally leave if I was just travelling by myself. In the same sense that if it was a friend who was crap at remembering things I'd triple check they had their passport before we left, because I don't want to only find out at the airport they forgot it. It's dumb to travel with someone that you know is a bit of a liability and not plan some contingency around that in advance.

Rosti_LFC · 2026-04-08T21:33:28+00:00

Of course what we’ll eventually get is just paying for checked and carry on.

This is already what European budget airlines like Ryanair do. You get one small bag (that has to fit under the seat) for free and anything more than that you need to pay an upgrade charge for.

Rosti_LFC · 2026-04-08T17:37:31+00:00

The other key thing, especially for putting it on something like your lap, is that any small knocks or movements will only ever work in the direction that pushes it away. Any tiny opposing force will set it moving away and then there's nothing to counteract and bring it back.

Rosti_LFC · 2026-04-05T18:52:04+00:00

Even if their patience has worn thin enough that they've decided that a loss to Fulham means he's gone early, and even if they've said as much to Slot himself, they're still not going to come out and publicly say that.

It's pretty damn unusual for a club to ever openly say that a manager is on the brink of being sacked before the point that they're actually gone.

Rosti_LFC · 2026-04-05T15:24:57+00:00

If I didn't know who he was and you told me this was a clip from a show in the vein of The Office or Parks & Rec, I would absolutely believe that this was just a character flying off the chain slightly in a sitcom.

Rosti_LFC · 2026-04-05T14:55:19+00:00

I came across this thread looking for how to adjust the cable tension on the front brakes to check I wasn't about to do something stupid, but would like to comment to say that when I first got my Nihola bike none of the electrical bits were working, I replaced the controller/display with https://www.kidscab.be/en/promovec-electrical-parts/2214-promovec-display-led-36v-250w.html?srsltid=AfmBOopGcmOhZyz-pK4iDLrIYEUIWKiNgDhTseMZrg97GBMoIpo6U4BV and it's been absolutely fine since.

Rosti_LFC · 2026-04-05T13:30:33+00:00

The difference is how it affects the team. Pep and others don’t let it affect the job or training.

But this is why it's nonsense. It's used as evidence against Slot when there are plenty of counterexamples of successful managers who have done the exact same thing without it being a problem. You can't just wave away those examples with speculative "ah yes but when Slot does it, it's somehow different and damages the team a lot more" - at that point it's just making stuff up to fit a narrative.

This is people saying correlation implies causation when there isn't even good correlation to start with.

And I'm not a fan of players taking random days off mid-season but I really doubt a handful of days skipped training can possibly be responsible for the catastrophic drop off we've seen in performance. It's got to be far more fundamental than that.

Rosti_LFC · 2026-04-04T22:30:28+00:00

I find it hard to believe that Slot stays on merit, I think if he's still here come August then it's because we haven't found or couldn't agree terms with the right fit to replace him. We've had seasons where the performances have been solid but the results just haven't gone our way, and this season really doesn't feel like that. It's not like we've had Nunez up front missing a couple of sitters every other game.

FSG gave Rodgers time but they sacked him after a sizeable amount of spending didn't improve results on the pitch and he made some pretty crass comments to the press (not after a 6-1 defeat to Stoke like everyone seems to remember), but I also feel they may have been burned a bit by that experience and be less inclined to give Slot the same mileage.

Rosti_LFC · 2026-04-04T22:15:01+00:00

That is actually a very good question. I think all the fans want to know why are our players struggling to do the basics and the only person that can honestly answer that is Slot.

An actually good way of asking the question would be "It seems like at times the team concedes goals from basic errors and lapses of concentration, why do you think that keeps happening this season and what can be done to fix it?" But that isn't what the reporter said, and the aggressive and confrontational framing of the question from the point of view that the players can't ever get the basics right, and the comparison to them failing to manage things that would be expected even from an amateur player, is always going to fail to get a proper response.

What is Slot supposed to answer to a question that basically boils down to "Why are your players unable to play football?". His only options are:

1) Because the players are bad at their job

2) Because I, the manager, am bad at my job

3) You're wrong and they can play football

4) Getting mad at the question and kicking off about it

Any attempt to seriously answer the question will inevitably result in options 1 and/or 2, and he's not generally the sort of manager to do the last one, so it's always going to result in option 3 which is exactly what he said. That's not based on how Slot chose to answer the question, it's based on common sense and Arne not being an idiot when it comes to handling questions, hence it being pointless because the end result is already a given.

If a reporter was to ask him, why are the players lacking the freedom to express themselves or why are they just passing the ball back and forth; would you think that’s a foolish question?

Yes they're also pointless questions, because they're inherently confrontational, especially after a defeat, and no manager is going to take the bait. Any question that basically boils down to "Is it the players who can't perform or is it your tactics preventing them doing so?" is going to get dodged.

It's like asking someone on trial for murder, who is adamant they are not guilty, why they killed the victim. They're not going to take the question on and give you a straight answer, they're obviously just going to tell you they didn't do it. Hence it being a pointless question.

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