Trivia & Politics (more trivia)

[kingandy]

Big-ass personality review from mrssshhh:
I looked up my Enneagram result from way back when (9w1), but I didn't know my MBTI type, so did that test first:

ENTP - "Inventor". Enthusiastic interest in everything and always sensitive to possibilities. Non-conformist and innovative. 3.2% of the total population.

Take Free Myers-Briggs Personality Test

Huzzah! So then I could do the personality thing.

Advanced Big 45 Personality Test Results Gregariousness |||||||||||||||||| 54% Sociability ||||||||||||||| 46% Assertiveness ||||||||| 22% Poise |||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 86% Leadership ||||||||||||||| 50% Provocativeness ||||||||||||||| 42% Self-Disclosure |||||||||||||||||| 54% Talkativeness ||||||||||||||| 46% Group Attachment ||||||||||||||||||||| 70% Extroversion |||||||||||||||||| 52% Understanding |||||||||||||||||||||||| 78% Warmth |||||||||||||||||||||||| 74% Morality ||||||||||||||||||||| 70% Pleasantness |||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 86% Empathy |||||||||||||||||| 58% Cooperation |||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 82% Sympathy ||||||||||||||||||||| 70% Tenderness |||||||||||||||||| 54% Nurturance ||||||||||||||||||||| 70% Friendliness |||||||||||||||||||||||| 71% Conscientiousness |||||||||||| 38% Efficiency ||||||||||||||| 50% Dutifulness |||||||||||||||||||||||| 78% Purposefulness ||||||||| 30% Organization |||||||||||||||||| 58% Cautiousness |||||||||||| 38% Rationality ||||||||||||||| 50% Perfectionism |||||||||||| 34% Orderliness ||||||||||||||||||||| 62% Orderliness ||||||||||||||| 48% Stability |||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 82% Happiness |||||||||||||||||| 58% Calmness |||||||||||||||||||||||| 74% Moderation ||||||||||||||||||||| 62% Toughness |||||||||||||||||||||||| 78% Impulse Control ||||||||||||||| 46% Imperturbability |||||||||||||||||| 54% Cool-headedness ||||||||||||||||||||| 66% Tranquility ||||||||| 26% Emotional Stability |||||||||||||||||| 60% Intellect |||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 86% Ingenuity ||||||||||||||| 50% Reflection |||||||||||||||||||||||| 78% Competence |||||||||||||||||||||||| 78% Quickness |||||||||||||||||||||||| 74% Introspection |||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 82% Creativity ||||||||||||||||||||| 66% Imagination |||||||||||||||||||||||| 74% Depth ||||||||||||||||||||| 66% Openmindedness |||||||||||||||||||||||| 72%

Take Free Advanced Big 45 Personality Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

Looks like I'm mostly Friendly and Open-Minded. Heh.

Also,

Personality Disorder Test Results Paranoid |||||||||| 34% Schizoid |||||||||| 38% Schizotypal |||||||||||||||| 66% Antisocial |||||| 26% Borderline |||||||||| 34% Histrionic |||||||||| 38% Narcissistic |||||||||||||| 58% Avoidant |||||| 26% Dependent |||||||||||||||| 62% Obsessive-Compulsive |||||||||||| 42%

Take Free Personality Disorder Test

Groovy.

While I'm here,

Am I cool or uncool? [CLICK] You are Cool! You're pretty cool! People look at you and think.. 'wow.. that person is cool!' Congratulations. Use your position wisely and teach the dorks below you a thing or two. There's nothing like recruiting a cool person. Cool quizzes at Go-Quiz.com

Enough quizzes for now. Hokey news story of the day: Smoking is one of the few pleasures poorer people have access to! OMG we must not rob them of the pleasure of slowly killing themselves and their family. Hey, I understand an adrenaline rush can be quite pleasurable too, let's push them off the top of their council flats, it's one of the few pleasures they have access to.

"What enjoyment does a 21-year-old single mother of three living in a council sink estate get?" asks John Reid, the Health Secretary for the United Kingdom, "The only enjoyment sometimes they have is to have a cigarette." It's quite surprising to see that he's an ex-smoker himself.

The BBC manage to remain fairly unbiased in their reporting, right up to the end where they mention (as if in passing) that "Smoking is the biggest cause of preventable death in the UK, responsible for 120,000 premature deaths a year."


In related news, I voted LibDem in the European and Local Council elections. I did this mostly because they were not the BNP or UKIP.

Comments

[renniek.livejournal.com]

Yeah, smoking is a pleasure - it's enjoyable - why the hell else would anyone actually do it?

I'm actually quite glad to see someone in government giving a different viewpoint from the usual "smoking is the cause of all ills".
The thing is, passive smoking can affect you if you live with a smoker or if you work in a very smokey environment. Short of these kinds of long-term high exposure, if you live in a city, passive smoking makes fuck all difference to the state of your lungs.

The reason governments and businesses are so keen on demonising smoking is because it's a cheap, easy thing to fix. It's cheaper for an employer to ban smoking on their site than to provide a well-ventilated smoking area with air-conditioning to ensure the smoke doesn't spill out into non-smoking areas. It's cheaper for the government to take measures against smoking than to reduce traffic pollution.

I'm all in favour of education about the dangers of smoking, and I'm all in favour of restricting smoking to particular areas so that the majority of places are smoke-free environments. I'm not in favour of the current trend of exaggerating the negative effects of smoking as compared to other health risks, and I'm not in favour of placing a ban on it.

I quit smoking just over 7 months ago. A ban on smoking in public places would have done nothing to help me. In fact, the persecution of smokers was always something that made me want to smoke more (not that I'm awkward or anything)

[kingandy]

I'm aware of the pleasure involved (by reputation). I just don't think "It feels good" is a reason to encourage single mothers to do it - or even to allow them, tbh. There's laws against plenty of things that make you feel good...

If he'd said "people have a right to choose for themselves" I'd probably have been behind him, but he said "The common people enjoy it!"

[renniek.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. I don't think he was actively encouraging single mothers to do it.

And I don't really think that "The common people enjoy it!" is what he meant. I think his argument was that people have a right to choose for themselves. He was specifically discussing the poor, because government taxes to increase the price of cigarettes may stop poor smokers from being able to afford fags, but won't stop wealthier smokers.
Also, I thought he was implying that it was somewhat unfair for a bunch of people who can afford meals out at posh restaurants (obesity being a health risk), skiiing holidays (potential for broken limbs), expensive wines (alcohol a major health risk) etc etc to be trying to get rid of one of the extravagances that poor people can afford to indulge in.

[kingandy]

Fair point, on re-reading the article he does seem to be pushing the "non-interference" angle. However, he did imply that parents (single or otherwise) smoking is perfectly alright, even if he wasn't actively pushing fags into their hands. I know the medical community is still divided on second-hand smoke, but there's no way it can be good for a child, even if it's not directly carcinogenic.

I'd also question that anyone can really afford to indulge in smoking, but I know you were talking about finance so I'll let it slide. ;) The counterpoint could still be made, of course, that if they didn't indulge in smoking they'd be able to afford other indulgences...

[renniek.livejournal.com]

I agree that it was ill-judged to make any comment that could be interpreted as saying that it's OK for parents to smoke. Passive smoking is definitely harmful - there's no real division on that any more - and I don't think ylou could find anyone who'd say it isn't carcinogenic.

However, I thought his real point was that the best way to persuade our single-mum-living-on-council-estate to quit smoking is by educating her about the risks associated with smoking and improving her quality of life so that she has more sources of enjoyment / relaxation to turn to as an alternative to smoking fags, rather than legislating against smoking so that she's deprived of one of the few sources of enjoyment / relaxation available to her. I thought he was saying that we should try to make people want to quit, and try to support them when they're quitting, rather than trying to force them to quit against their will.

And I think smoking is relatively cheap compared to many other indulgences - financially cheap anyway, you pedantic boy ;-)

[masinkie.livejournal.com]

Over here we don't smoke as much as you folks (I've heard it said that in the US about a quarter of the population smokes, while in the UK about a quarter of the population is smoking right now). Our number one cause of preventable death is heart disease from eating too much godamn fatty food.

I doubt we'll be seeing the US government putting regulations on Coke products anytime soon, despite the fact that they're horrible. Caffiene is a diuretic, and they're purposely putting it in sugar water, this is as bad as when the cigarette companies were adding extra nicotine into cigarettes, and the soda companies are admitting to it.

[masinkie.livejournal.com]

I sincerely wish that LJ had an "edit" command ...

[kingandy]

Delete -> repost?

[lord-blipvert.livejournal.com]

Surely road accidents are the biggest cause of "preventable death"?

[renniek.livejournal.com]

I was going to pick up on that if anyone mentioned it ;-)

"Preventable deaths" is a particularly subjective term. What do we define as "preventable"?

[lord-blipvert.livejournal.com]

""Preventable deaths" is a particularly subjective term. What do we define as "preventable"?"

Well the defination that seems to be used with smoking is any case where it's a contributing factor to death.

[kingandy]

No ... No, I think there you're thinking about "cause of", not "preventable".

[lord-blipvert.livejournal.com]

But surely smoking doesn't kill people. Cancer does. :D

[kingandy]

I don't honestly know how many road accidents result in death. To a degree it's about how you group things, though ... you could say "road accidents aren't a single cause of death; they're caused by individuals". Or you could just as easily say "Road accidents are a part of the 'human' cause of death group - 'humans' are the biggest cause of preventable death". To a degree it's meaningless, I was more interested that they tacked it on to the end of the article than I was in the statistic itself.

[kingandy]

Note to self: overuse of "To A Degree". File next to "Actually" and "In Fairness".

Snap!

[pkgem.livejournal.com]

I voted LibDem in the European and Local Council elections.
Me too. See, you must move to Bolton so that we can vote in the same area (ok - only if you move to Great Lever) and one day, our candidates may actually win!

voting

[ajon.livejournal.com]

Me three. Well for the main election I voted 2 lib dem 1 labour, for the Europe I voted Green.

Apparently in our ward it's a toss up between lib dem and tory so I knew which one to vote!

Re: voting

[samharber.livejournal.com]

As long as we're confessing... I voted lib-dem all the way. I have no fear of europe.

Well, I do, but the chances of me affecting a decision in europe is as small as my chance of making tony blair change his mind.

Re: voting

[rich-bull.livejournal.com]

I mostly voted libdem, but I'm not keen on the european stance of the libdems so I chose the lesser of the right wing evils there.

Re: voting

[stsquad.livejournal.com]

Ahh, the lib dems have a European stance? So far all I've heard them go on about is "if you thought the war in Iraq was wrong vote for us".

[lord-blipvert.livejournal.com]

The Greens are pretty much the only left wing anti EU convergence group standing. Apart from Wespec'. But the less said about them the better.