Afternoon roundup

• George Thompson, one of the usual suspects at Otago at Wellington's Public Health department, warns that his preferred nanny state interventions are increasingly being accurately labelled as nanny state.

  “There’s a need to reframe public health activity as stewardship that protects people. Governments are expected to balance the public good against the interests of big business, and to care for the vulnerable in society. We need to create the language to reflect this, which looks behind slogans and the stereotyping of opposition to unhealthy products.”
  
  Dr Thomson said there’s a need to reframe and analyse businesses that inflict health damage to people, as leeches on society.

  What a world view. Leeches? Liberty Scott rightly takes him to task. I wonder whether folks at his outfit are getting worried about the cushy government contracts drying up with the change in government.


• Brad Taylor points to an excellent DeSoto video (the economist, not the car)


• Tetris made me smarter


• Guarding against date-bots: a truly excellent XKCD