Despite the real risk from hantavirus being low, it is getting covered a lot in media right now. I think this is actually good. A lot of people had already forgotten about the pandemic that we had not that long ago and moved on to worrying about other problems currently dominating the news cycle. Hopefully this serves as a (small) reminder to people that pandemic preparedness / biosecurity really does matter. 

WHO does not seem too worried about it: "WHO currently assesses the risk to the global population from this event as low".

BOTEC: 4.2 percent of suicides in the state of Victoria in Australia were gambling-related. 19.4 percent of suicides in Hong Kong were gambling-related. 720,000 suicides happen every year. Let's say 10 percent of all suicides globally are related to gambling. That would be 72,000 gambling-related suicides.

Tobacco causes over 7 million deaths per year, while alcohol kills 2.6 million people per year.

Gambling interventions could be cost-effective, in some situations. Especially for larger countries yet to liberalize gambling/betting (like Brazil, India)? Also, now might be a window to lobby for stricter regulations on prediction markets.

Random fun fact: Indonesia has banned gambling, but is the only country where tobacco advertising is still legal.

Wytham Abbey was listed on the market in May 2024 and sold in November 2025, so it took 18 months to sell. I do not know whether 18 months is slow or fast to sell a property like this. Would waiting another year have helped get a higher price? Maybe. But I guess waiting has costs too, like not being able to use the money right now and paying for property maintenance.

Here is the listing. From the photos, I have to say the place does look quite…effective!

I do agree that every ban should be well-justified and well thought out. I think it is worth noting that this law has been two years in the making. They have received written evidence from 88 different stakeholders, most of whom are Big Tobacco or Big Vape backed organizations. Honestly, I think the big problem with the bill is that they only applied the generational ban to cigarettes; vaping and other nicotine products will still be available to them. EDIT: Turns out the law bans both cigarettes and vapes. EDIT2: Only cigarettes will be banned. Some outlets seem to have mistakenly reported that vapes are included in the generational ban. 

(Protecting civil liberties is a popular argument for Big Tobacco / Vape lobbyists to use against stricter laws. )

First, to be clear, I am not saying illicit tobacco trade does not exist. It certainly does and is a problem.

But when it comes to tobacco, it helps to always be a bit paranoid about every claim that you hear. Big Tobacco does often argue that raising taxes / making laws more stringent is risky, because it could lead to increased illicit trade. But this argument does not actually hold up. Illicit cigarette sales in the UK over the last few decades: 

When it comes to Australia: well, it does seems that the article I linked above does not really hold up here, right? Australia does have a massive problem with illicit sales. Now, there certainly are some former law enforcement officers often appearing on Australian media who say that the only way to deal with this problem is that the tax should be lowered. Sounds reasonable, right? Well, turns out that they are usually funded by Big Tobacco, even if they don't disclose it. 

I am no expert on the best way to crack down on illicit trade, but I do believe that if the UK could deal with this issue, so can Australia, if it tries harder. I do wonder if lobbying for more funding / helping the AU government come up with novel ways to solve this problem could be an effective intervention. I do not believe that the correct answer to this problem is that we should just give up and let the tobacco companies get the excise lowered. Tobacco taxes are the most effective way to drive behaviour change, after all.

The UK is set to pass a law that bans the sale of tobacco to anyone born after 2008. Once the king signs it into law, the UK will become the second country in the world to introduce a generational smoking ban, after the Maldives did so last November. (New Zealand also considered such a ban a few years ago, but did not go through with it.) 

My takeaways from reading the NYT article:

1. Social expectations have (at least in the U.S., which the piece mostly focuses on; it might be a bit different in Europe and other parts of the world) somewhat shifted away from supporting ultra-high-net-worth individuals from doing a lot of philanthropy and doing it publicly. This is sad. We should think if we could somehow help change that. People giving a lot of money to effective causes is something that definitely deserves to be praised and celebrated.
2. There is a lack of accountability for the pledgers. My guess is that Giving Pledge could benefit from scaling up their team significantly to contact and engage donors more regularly. On the other hand, I think society should hold the pledges more to account, and call out people who do not start donating.

Another, less plausible explanation for the slow-down in Giving Pledge sign-ups might be the growth of Founders Pledge in recent years. Some people who would have signed the Giving Pledge in the past might now sign the Founders Pledge instead.^[1] Anecdotal evidence from my own country supports this hypothesis: no person has signed Giving, but four billionaires / UHNWIs have signed Founders.

1. ^{^}

   Giving and Founders are not perfect substitutes; Founders also targets early-stage founders who are not yet (ultra) wealthy.)