OK. Taiwan banned smoking in indoor public places earlier this year. Fair enough.
I smoke but I understand the predicament of non-smokers and really don't mind so much having to go outside and light up with my fellow outcasts. Incidentally, Graham Linehan did an absolutely genius skit about this in The IT Crowd Season 2 Episode 3 (you can see more and help feed Graham's starving family here )
But here's the kicker. The Taiwanese EPA estimates that 10 billion fag ends are collected annually with about a quarter of those tossed illegally on the streets of Taiwan. Consequently, they are now considering new legislation to make it illegal to smoke while walking, driving or riding a scooter.
The director of the EPA said: “With the passage of the [amendment to the] Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act earlier this year, most smokers now smoke outdoors ... that has increased the litter problem,”
Yes, perhaps it has. But perhaps another factor in the increase of cigarette butts on the streets could have something to do with the fact that the government has... wait for it,
BANNED ASHTRAYS.
Come on. Taiwan Legislators, please give us a break and stick to what you do best .
Hi Dav0,
ReplyDeleteI have a small suggestion, from a reader's point of view. It may be, no is very subjective comment. I found that it helps to clearly define the blog target audience. In my case I direct my Heretic blog to myself! It may sound strange but it does work because first it serves as my a permanent notebook-in-the-cloud, secondly it automatically attracts ONLY people of the same frame of mind. On the other hand, if I tried to make something pallatable to "normal" (i.e. not nerds) people I would have failed! I make a very bad monkey, I cannot really fake that.
Here are some future topics suggestions:
- Embedded Microprocessors
- Software Languages
- Shamanism (Silva Method, RV etc)
N.b. I am flying tomorrow at midnight to Korea, will be flying back on the 18-th. I couldn't make it to Warsaw, the airline would charge ~5500$ for the trip because of the Christmas ( I hope these airline go bust). You can reach me on gmail, I will be checking my email.
P.S. - your editor window (I am using Firefox) seems to be text only, does not allow arrow keys and does not let me Copy&Paste. You can fix it by enabling html editing for comments and replies, under your blog Settings/Options.
Heretic