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Farin

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Posts posted by Farin

  4. Al Gore Sells Out

    in News and Current Events

    Posted

    Considering that it's owned by a sheikh, Al Jazeera is incredibly independent in its news coverage, probably equal to CNN or the BBC.

    In the 2000s, the network was praised by the Index on Censorship for circumventing censorship and contributing to the free exchange of information in the Arab world, and by the Webby Awards, who nominated it as one of the five best news web sites, along with BBC News, National Geographic and The Smoking Gun. It was also voted by brandchannel.com readers as the fifth most influential global brand behind Apple, Google, Ikea and Starbucks. In 2011 Salon.com noted Al Jazeera's coverage of the 2011 Egyptian protests as superior to that of the American news media, while U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton also opined that the network's news coverage was more informative, and less opinion-driven than American journalism.
    I guess one shouldn't be surprised that Fox News has a differing opinion on that?

  7. '27 dead' in Connecticut primary school shooting

    in News and Current Events

    Posted

    Are you seriously asking whether home burglaries happen?

    People breaking into houses when they think they're empty in order to steal stuff and people breaking into houses knowing the occupants are at home practically expecting to inflict bodily harm on them to steal stuff are two completely different things. And yes, I didn't know that the latter was a very common way criminals are working... I never heard about that before, apart from the odd movie plot. :P

    Thanks for explaining, Shawna.

  9. '27 dead' in Connecticut primary school shooting

    in News and Current Events

    Posted

    Japan doesn't allow gun possession legally, they are a completely different and controlled culture. They have more respect, dignity and honor than any nation, imho. They have extremely strict immigration. I would be curious if America instituted their immigration policies alone, what impact that would have on our gun violence. Look at their history, look at all the facts, not just he ones that support your cause, position or agenda.

    Could you please explain what immigration has to do with gun related homicides?

    But anyway:

    List of countries by firearm-related death rate

    The USA has a rate of 10.2 gun related deaths per 100.000 inhabitants. France with its BIG immigration related problems has 3.00, the UK 0.25 and Germany (with a rate of immigrants roughly comparable to the US) has a rate of 1.10.

    Come to think of, that reminds me of an article from a couple months ago.

    "According to Germany's Der Spiegel, German police shot only 85 bullets in all of 2011. [...] most of those shots weren't even aimed anyone: "49 warning shots, 36 shots on suspects. 15 persons were injured, 6 were killed.""

    (Germany has a population of 82 mio, so feel free to multiply by 4 to get the equivalent amount for a population the size of the US).

    Also... "so what is a person to do when a criminal with a gun breaks into their home at 3:00 AM? Die? Or defend themselves?" does this really happen?

  13. Newtown Boy Asks Kids To Dump Violent Video Games

    in News and Current Events

    Posted

    Now if memory serves, people told me about a game years ago "Grand Theft Auto", where rapes occur.

    Additionally to what RockyRaccoon said: it doesn't.

    There is no rape in Grand Theft Auto, there's not even sex on-screen (occurrences are only referenced in dialogue - where it is, to my knowledge, always consensual).

    And again, there is just no sound evidence that violence in fiction (movies, games, etc) causes a rise in violence in real life... here's a graph that shows the number of crime victims per 1000 US citizens together with the release of some particularly violent games:

    (note again that correlation doesn't mean causation; the fact that the rate is sinking isn't caused by the release of the games, it's simply a coincidence)

  23. Random Music Thoughts V

    in Music Discussion

    Posted

    This has to be the only list in history where The Beatles come in at #18.

    Yeah, unless you would order it after scrobbles instead of listeners...

    comparing The Beatles with the Black Eyed Peas:

    listeners:

    2,950,079 vs 2,875,079

    (75k difference)

    scrobbles:

    394,092,506 vs 60,951,237

    (334 mio(!) difference)

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