OT: Sad news out of Alabama today
Gunman opens fire into a bar around mid-night last night wounds at least 17. It is a location that many students frequent. I just don't understand what drives people to do some of the things that they do. Thoughts go out to all that were injured.
This world is just not a good place anymore. You can't even prevent random events like this occuring, this could happen anywhere at anytime. Just have to enjoy every moment you have.
Unless you wanna go full-on Minority Report, we'll never be able to stop stuff like this. For every nut job like this, there are a few hundred million of us living nice, normal lives
But when was the world a "good place"?
Dothepose clearly is pining for the dark ages.
should've guessed that guy would recognize the greatness of michigan.
Except for those unfortunate kids subject to abuse, which makes crimes against kids so heinous.
Steven Pinker charts the decline of violence from Biblical times to the present, and argues that, though it may seem illogical and even obscene, given Iraq and Darfur, we are living in the most peaceful time in our species' existence.
http://www.ted.com/talks/steven_pinker_on_the_myth_of_violence.html
1950s were pretty cool.
The world was never a good place. Do I really have to bring up all of astrocities that have occured in the past but was never reported prior to the development of mass media.
actually sound pretty cool. were they on mars? \spellcheck
of Space when I read it. There were astrocities in his boyhood life, which is why his family immigrated to Ohio, Earth (?!?!?, must've been pretty bad to immigrate to Ohio ...)
It used to be that depending on where you lived and the group you were targeting, things like this were socially acceptable. Very few places in the world any longer condone anything like this. YOu can never stop all the whack jobs, but at least you can make sure that people on their way to becoming wackjobs don't feel encouraged towards it.
This world is just not a good place anymore.
I know the point you are trying to make, but the world has never been a particularly great place. We just hear about the horrible stuff more frequently now than in the past.
The proliferation of media has indeed made the availability heuristic and much of the work of Tversky and Kahneman all too real, in my opinion. Stories like this appear with increasing frequency, so we tend to think of them as more common, when they are more than likely as rare as they have always been. I know they've done studies where people have been asked to estimate the crime rate of a city based solely on news reporting, and they overestimate the frequency of some crimes by 10 to 20 times (more, in a few cases) their actual per capita rate.
Still, it doesn't make stories like this any less tragic and terrible. My thoughts also go out to all who were injured as well as their families.
Michigan Football Players make music video doesn't produce readers/clicks the way "insert lurid headline here" does.
And I'd agree that the world isn't some magical place because backup QBs make rap videos...actually, never mind. If Higgs boson doesn't reaffirm your belief in humanity as being capable of doing anything, the CONER definitely should.
Don't be such a drama queen.
Things are better than they've ever been, ever.
For example, right now I'm using a magic machine to speak with you, and this machine can instantly connect me to just about anywhere in the world.
I could walk down to an ER, saw off my hand, and they'd fucking put it back on.
Millions of people have died (and still are dying of) diarrhea. In America, people get that shit twice a week from eating Taco Bell.
I can have a dissenting opinion without being burned alive, and do something weird without being called a witch and cast off of a cliff into the ocean.
If I want to go somewhere I can take my driving machine to a flying machine and be anywhere on the Earth in a matter of hours.
The world we live in is fucking magic.
I think that LastHoke is correct here. What's most interesting to me is why so many folks come to conclusions similar to the OP's.
I think a lot of it has to do with the (freakin' magic) explosion in communications technology, and the media growth that has quickly followed. 25 years ago, the main sources of news were newspapers, TV news, and magazines. It was difficult to fit all that much news in the available media space (which is why we have all the AP Handbook writing that lingers on - the conventions in that handbook put a premium on shortening the characters used in a story). And it was costly to transfer photos, video, etc., whereas now I can take a video with my mobile phone and post it to the world without leaving my car.
Bottom line is that in 1987, there were far fewer news stories available, and editors had to put together a mix that would appeal to all spectra of their audience. So you couldn't put out 30 negative news stories a day. Now, we have virtually unlimited space to put content before anyone with a computer, dozens of news stations (most with a 24 hour news cycle), and other outlets. Bad news sells, and we're increasingly inundated with it.
So it's a reasonable perception that the world's going to hell in a handbasket, but there's lots of evidence that the average person is safer, healthier, etc., than they were in years past.
By the way, while nearly all of us have faced hardships and tragedies, whether the world is a bad place or a good place is not really an objective matter. A lot of it is in attitude.
Yep. It's the culture of fear proliferated by the media. Anyone who wants to know more about this should watch the movie Bowling For Columbine, real eye opening.
I only get diarrhea once a week from eating Taco Bell, but it lasts all week so I guess your point still applies. And on Mgoblog if you have a dissenting opinion you will have most of, if not all of those things happen to you, so that point is total bullshit. But yeah, magic, bitches. Magic.
...per capita misery has been pretty steadily decreasing for the last hundred years. The good old days were no picnic.
Very tragic news. But dothepose seems like he could use the boost in his perception of current humanity, see below
http://www.buzzfeed.com/expresident/pictures-that-will-restore-your-fai…
You avatar boosts my perception of current humanity.
It's really good to see this stuff. Thank you.
how things like your post can catch me off guard. Thanks for that, mate! Much appreciated.
What a tragedy in Alabama. Things like this make one really think about how important things in this world are other than sports.
this one may be my new favorite kitty picture that you see so often on this blog...
Also, people like the guy who caught an autistic 7-year-old girl who fell out of a third story window:
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/what_catch_xwblWglEiyYSVUl7…
Open carry, especially at bars and other drinking establishments.
There's no better deterrent to shooting violence than every last one of us carrying guns.
You just never know when somebody's going come up from behind you and shoot you.
No politics. Bad dog.
"You just never know when somebody's going come up from behind you and shoot you.
Because the gun in your holster will have your back?
My holster's custom made and embroidered with PAIN.
why don't you go test that theory in detroit and see what happens?
Charles Bronson movies and see what happens?
Ask Gabrielle giffords and all the people that got shot in the Arizona Safeway parking lot 2 yeas ago. This thing happens in open carry states too. People who are crazy enough to open fire on a crowd of innocent people are crazy enough to open fire on a crowd of well armed people as well.
went clear over this guy's head (and I'm afraid others).
I would have thought the absurdity of the original post would have been enough. Maybe the saddest thing is that it's not such an absurd post after all, at least in some people's minds.
Most criminals have more rights than the officers trying to protect us.
say that legal and societal crimes are basis for suspending a football program, i will understand them today when they suggest shutting down 'bama.
oh well
where saban covered this up for 13 years.
Maybe the worst analogy ever
What drives people to do these kind of things? It's very simple, anti-depressants -- serotonin uptake inhibitors, or SSRI's.
If one looks into the most imfamous of these recent incidents one will find that most, if not all, these killers were on SSRI's. They start having suicidal thoughts, they stop taking their meds, then they're told to go back on them by doctors and family, then BANG, psychotic break!
Very sad state of affairs when phrama corp. profits out weight the greater good of society -- but then, that's nothing new is it?
I think there could be lots of causes for violent crime.
You would think that, but nope, it's anti-depressants. Which is exactly why you've seen the use of SSRIs increase 400% in the last two decades, while violent crime has decreased by roughly 51% over that same time.
That's not a proper analysis of the situation. What is the percentage of mass shootings/killings today as compared to yesteryear before the 400% increase of SSRI's into the population would be more appropriate.
http://www.naturalnews.com/020406.html
http://www.naturalnews.com/020643.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/758763.stm
http://www.naturalnews.com/034433_SSRI_drugs_children_murder.html
http://healthland.time.com/2011/01/07/top-ten-legal-drugs-linked-to-vio…
I am not saying anything that isn't widely known within the medical and law enforcement communities.
You probably shouldn't try to argue correlation as causation on a board with this many engineers and statisticiancs.
An increase in mass killings? Well, how do you define a mass killing? 2? 10? 100? Greater access to firearms and explosives are a simpler, and therefor more likely correct explanation.
More killings taking place by people on anti-depressants? There's also been an increase (orders of magnitude greater, in fact) in people taking anti-depressants that do NOT kill anyone. Clearly, anti-depressants are a cause of reduced violence.
Several flaws in your argument Blaze.
Access to firearms is FAR MORE restrictive today than it was in the past. Heck, in the 1930's one could buy a FULLY AUTOMATIC Thompson Sub Machine Gun out of a mail order catalog. No background check, no waiting period save the time it took to ship.
You're trying to twist my contention, unfairly I might add. I am only reporting what is KNOWN within the medical and law enforcement communities -- when they respond to a random mass killing -- like Columbine, VT, etc. -- it is later found that the perpetrators were on SSRI's. You can sit there and play number/word games with me all you want, that doesn't make your argument correct. To say that SSRI's clearly reduce violence is saying that the majority of those on SSRI's would commit violent acts if not for their meds. That is patently false. However, it is well known that people otherwise not sucidal nor violent have shown and increase in these destructive behaviors while on SSRI's -- fer fok sake dude, it's on the god damn Rx insert!