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“A treasure trove of facts, stories, science and philosophical nuggets.”
Professor Alan Maryon-Davis, former Chair of the Royal Society of Public Health

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Make 100 from six -
Alcohol Review – issue 90, March 19th 2023 - In this issue: Public health welcomes end of alcohol tax freeze; Asian flush linked to cancer; Ads create harmful online environments Public health welcomes end of alcohol tax freeze Public health advocates this week welcomed a UK Budget heeding its call for alcohol duty to rise at least in line with inflation, as well as a move […]
solution 001 -
Unreal: Safe life-appreciation booster on trial - This is fiction. Scientists are trialling a suite of life-affirming placebo dangers to perk up listless middle-life men. A disproportionate number of men around 50 try to rekindle the devil-may-care attitude of their youth by taking risks which lead to harm. Motorbike accidents among middle-aged men rose by nearly two thirds in the years since […]
How’s this possible? - Why does a one-square hole open up when we rearrange these shapes, as shown below?
Divide your timer - Can you draw two straight lines to cut the clock dial into two sets of numbers with the same sum? And can you do it with five lines to create six groups with an equal sum?
Can you halve yin-yang? - This yin-yang symbol is made of a circle with two semicircles in the middle to define the border between yin (black) and yang (white) areas. Can you draw a single straight line to divide both areas in half? This is a well known one, but it came to my attention again thanks to mindbending maestro […]
Can you identify a liar? - Meet Andy, Bob and Chris. We know one of them always tells the truth, one always lies and another does a bit of both. Andy says, “Chris is the one who mixes truth and lies.” Bernie says, “Andy is a liar.” And Chris says, “I mix truth and lies.” Which is which?
Stretch your thinking - Can you connect A to A’, B to B’. C to C’ with no lines crossing.
Can you force a liar to tell the truth? - You are in a country surrounded by water and/or impenetrable walls. There are two types of people there, those who always tell the truth and those who always lie. You start walking to the next village when the road splits into two branches. There are two local people standing there. Can you ask a single […]

Specialist

Health minister meets alcohol industry over alcohol-free drinks - Health minister Jo Churchill chaired a meeting with alcohol industry representatives which began exploring how uptake of low-alcohol drinks might help prevent health problems on Monday. “The roundtable was made up of representatives from the alcohol industry, trade bodies, consumer groups and retailers,” said the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). The health department […]
UPDATED: UK lockdown alcohol volume estimates disagree - A UK alcohol industry trade body says beer and wine sales measured in litres both fell in the covid-19 lockdown, apparently contradicting a health analyst’s findings. Beer sales fell 10% by volume in the year to October 2020 and the volume of wine sold fell by 5% in the same period, says the Wine and […]
Investors favour alcohol - Alcohol share prices in the US are far stronger than before the covid-19 slump struck with the US Alcoholic Beverages/Drinks Index up a fifth over the full year, having almost halved in February (see chart). A share price rise needn’t necessarily indicate an expectation of higher profits or revenue. It could be a “flight to […]
The case for an alcohol advertising cap - Limiting alcohol advertising spend could boost industry profits while testing the premise underlying our current approach. Policy is often based on the assumption alcohol advertising is about battling for a share of a market of fixed size. Cynics, of which I am one, doubt we are unmoved by the billions being spent on influencing our […]
Covid-19 shows life-saving policies are popular - The effort to control the covid-19 outbreak shows the public welcomes government action to protect life. Politicians might take note when formulating policies on alcohol, responsible for one in twenty deaths. Billions of us have overnight willingly complied with often stringent laws curtailing our business and social lives, thanks to our clear understanding that doing […]
A coronavirus ethos can help with alcohol - The challenge of changing our behaviour to slow the spread of coronavirus offers valuable clues about how we all might help reduce the harms of alcohol. There are those aspects of coronavirus aware behaviour adults must master alone, like washing our hands or the remarkably challenging feat of not touching our faces. But the most […]
Alcohol: comfort or bounce? -
Video: Meet the 170-year-old sobriety movement - The current wave of attention might make it seem like tackling alcohol harm is a new thing, but far from it. Movendi International has been working in the area for nigh-on 170 years, with a name change from IOGT last month the latest evolution. Its president Katarina Sperkova talks with me here about the organisation’s […]
Video/podcast: A more rational alcohol tax - On the eve of Brexit and the Budget I talked with Scott Corfe, research director of the Social Market Foundation think-tank about his proposals for a more rational form of alcohol tax. “If an increase in alcohol tax has a regressive impact, you can mitigate that elsewhere, through more generous benefits or through curbing other […]
Dry January is a vital part of the alcohol debate - The difficulty of putting a lid on our alcohol drinking for a month or more provides us with important understanding of alcohol and the often bewildering public debate around it. How can we understand the impact of advertising, taxation tweaks or the complex interplay of mind, body and environment? The answer is, by experiencing them […]

Sim

Off-topic/fiction

Unreal: Safe life-appreciation booster on trial - This is fiction. Scientists are trialling a suite of life-affirming placebo dangers to perk up listless middle-life men. A disproportionate number of men around 50 try to rekindle the devil-may-care attitude of their youth by taking risks which lead to harm. Motorbike accidents among middle-aged men rose by nearly two thirds in the years since […]
Blocked, ghosted and cancelled, S01E01 - An everyday story of internet folk Scene: A dimly lit Whatsapp text screen; Cast: Molly (M), Jenny (J) M: Hi Jenny J: Hi Moll M: You’re having a lol, ain’tcha? J: What lol might that be, Moll? M: A little bird tells me you’ve been texting Steve behind my back. Or am I wrong? J: […]
Nine years of trolling settle internet argument - One side of an internet argument looks set to achieve outright victory having “out-trolled” its opponents over nearly a decade, according to a source close to the defeated side. It is believed to be the first time in internet history that a group of people have been provoked and ridiculed so skillfully that they decided […]
People who lost the lottery this week - A fortunate minority occupies a large share of media attention. Here we restore balance by catching up with some of those to whom lady luck has dealt an entirely predictable hand. Ted Hurley, 59, a plasterer and home improvement enthusiast from Basingstoke picked the numbers 4, 19, 12, 36 and 41, none of which appeared […]
Dating apps allow users to become tradable assets - Popular dating app users will be able to become globally tradable assets from tomorrow, turning their right swipes into financial returns as well as romantic liaisons. Users will be given the option of linking their profile to a non-fungible token (NFTs), a unique sequence of characters on the cryptographic blockchain. “Becoming a unique tradable asset […]
[unreal] Off and on: master the art - Learn to master the timeless art of restarting your machine, whether you are aiming for a hard or soft reboot, this title offers you guidance from recognised experts in the field. ■
[Unreal] Scrooge, a rebranding one winter - An acute Christmas mental health crisis helped what became Marley’s Logistics drive a programme of strategic change, brand realignment and sustained long-term growth. Seven years after the tragic death of co-founder Jacob Marley the company found itself in a sorry state. Trade was brisk and the surviving founder personally wealthy, but he and his business […]
[Unreal] App offers “cure for lateness” - SAN FRANCISCO—The perennial problem of poor punctuality has been solved, says San Francisco startup SynchroPal, billed as the “cure for lateness”. “Our arrival times at social appointments varies, depending on factors including our cultural background and sense of self-worth,” says its research director James Kravitz. The company’s eponymous app hopes to allow users with different […]
[unreal] Funfare owner blames tragedy on “irresponsible minority” - The chief executive of Funtime funfare says fatal accidents on one of its most famous rides are the fault of an “irresponsible minority”. A couple in their twenties were flung from Funtime funfare’s world famous Whirligig Megawalzer on Tuesday night. The ride closed for twenty minutes to allow ambulances access to the injured, both dead […]
[Unreal] Slightly Serious Fraud Office launches pyramid scheme - The Slightly Serious Fraud Office today unveiled plans to create a pyramid scheme incubator division as part of a new, entrepreneurial approach to activities traditionally seen as crimes. “For too long pyramid schemes have been operated on the wrong side of the law by criminals, putting consumers at unnecessary risk,” said Richard Gregory, head of […]

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