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Katie's New Face

nationalgeographic.com

291–300 of 337 posts

Re: Katie's New Face

#291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I’ll forgo the proper words to describe how the US treats it’s coal miners, but one suffering from black lung disease would often have to go through the court system just to get an appointment with a doctor. I think it’s safe to say your experience in Germany does not apply here.

Not really comparable given the delayed effects of black lung as opposed to a burn from a coal dust fire.

To clarify, the injuries were not always related to the coal itself. There were a lot of heavy machinery and unstable tunnels, i.e. amputations, crushing and disfigurement.

The area has a history of coal mining that goes back for almost a thousand years. However I'm pretty sure the goal for reconstructive surgery wasn't entirely altruistic: e.g. a disabled worker is a non-worker but with some prosthetics he might still be able to do light work.

That said, I'd strongly believe the culture created by a centuries long tradition of coal mining in a single region is very different from that of 20th/21st century mining in the US.

Re: Katie's New Face

#292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What happened to Katie is super sad, but hundreds of thousands of people get dumped and cheated on every year without shooting themselves. I totally understand your feelings, because I also worry for my children. But I also try to do a few things: 1. Try to help my kids keep things in perspective. Don't hide the risk of pain and failure from them. Instead, warn them that such things will happen, and try to teach resi…

It's hard to prepare someone for emotional devastation from a life event. I had loving and supporting parents, and when I found out my exwife was cheating I went through some kind of scary. My kids no doubt will experience emotional torture at some point, I just hope it comes at a time that a) I'm there to realize it and be preemptive, or 2) they are adults that have some level of emotional balance (that I hopefully…

> My greatest fear is that I will emotionally injure my kids despite my unconditional love for them.

You will. We all scar our children in different ways. The best we can do is make those scars as shallow as possible.

Re: Katie's New Face

#293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially in the US, deer are extremely destructive to any environment they appear in, with herds numbering hundreds of thousands and eating every crop they happen upon. They were allowed to grow that much, partially because we have killed their natural predators, but also because hunting them has been aggressively frowned upon for decades now. So any suggestion of culling the herds is immediately and fiercely met w…

don't you have professional huntsmen/forester/whatever name over there? i don't see reason why general public should be taking care of this with guns

My understanding is that yes, rangers can cull down the population, but it's actually not a bad solution to issue say $500 permit to hunt deer(that allows you to shoot say 2-3 animals), and that way you cull the numbers without engaging already thin group or rangers.

But the issue exists no matter who does the shooting - there are groups who protest any kind of animal shooting, even if their population is wildly out of control.

Re: Katie's New Face

#294
post #30

> While the two were outside talking about how upset Katie was, she went into the bathroom, put the barrel of Robert’s .308-caliber hunting rifle below her chin, and pulled the trigger. Why did she have access to that gun? I bet Robert considers himself a "safe" gun owner too. Keep your guns locked and separate from your ammunition. Gun culture takes another victim.

better solution would be not having guns at all, you don't see these suicides in Europe or very rarely due to limited access

It's difficult to compare rates of suicide across countries because there are different ways of counting deaths, and there are different ways of ruling that something is a suicide.

Re: Katie's New Face

#295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Countries in Europe with higher suicide rates than the US: Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Latvia, Hungary, Slovenia, Ukraine, Estonia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria. Countries with nearly as high of a suicide rate: Germany, Czech, Portugal, Iceland Countries in Europe with high suicide rates, but solidly below the US: Slovakia, Denmark, Netherlands, Ireland, Romania, Norw…

not sure what have suicide rates to do with guns, they are based on various socioeconomic factors so if you want honestly compare us with something you should find country with similar living standards, environment etc which doesn't have easily accessible guns but you are right banning access to guns doesn't mean that 100% of those people won't commit suicide, but I guess it could shave at least few percentage points…

> not sure what have suicide rates to do with guns

The most important public health action to reduce suicide is to reduce access to means and methods, especially the most lethal methods.

Guns are particularly lethal.

> but I guess it could shave at least few percentage points from suicides by gun

It's closer to 50%.

There are 20,000 suicide deaths by gun in the US each year, out of a total of 45,000 suicide deaths.

The US has decided that those 20,000 deaths are a price worth paying for the fun of playing with their guns.

Re: Katie's New Face

#296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for explaining They mentioned cocaine, I never realized you could die by cocaine? What is LD50 of cocaine in street units, say "lines"? Why are some people in coma declared dead and others kept alive? Have people ever "recovered" from coma? Is it a question of permission from next of kin to keep the patient alive? Or does it boil down to a financial question?

LD50 for cocaine in mice is 94 mg/kg and a line is 35 - 100 mg according to wikipedia. So a large line per kilogram will probably kill you.

I can't imagine myself being able to continue preparing lines of cocaine and inhaling them for ~7.5 grams on end!? thats 75 of the larger lines or ~214 of the smaller kind of lines.

I could try my best but I am pretty sure I would simply fail to sniff 75 average lines. It seems impossible to succeed.

Re: Katie's New Face

#297
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is where the argument always fails for me. "But having a gun means I can defend my family!" Against what? I just don't buy the premise that you're significantly at risk of a violent attack out of nowhere, for no reason, at any given time. I've never felt even remotely unsafe living in London, let alone felt the need to keep a weapon on me.

>Against what? In the US, that would be against the individuals who collectively commit millions of violent crimes per year (surveys indicate this number easily exceeds 5 million per year).

The US is awash with guns. There are multiple guns for every US citizens. Despite all these guns the US, as you say, is also a very violent crime ridden country.

Can you see how the guns aren't working?

Re: Katie's New Face

#298
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, you know, we could just stop sending our young people out to get blown up... Kudos to the DoD for funding these experiments but they're solving a problem of their own creation...

Wouldn't it be great if it was just so simple? A single organization can just stop it all? Who would oppose that? Humans create war. It is in our nature. Every tiny effort to improve lives and perform these miracles should be cherished and encouraged, regardless of military background. It is perhaps one of the few ways we have to overcome conflict and look towards a better future.

Literally a single person could stop the vast majority of organized armed conflict in the world today.

Re: Katie's New Face

#299

> While the two were outside talking about how upset Katie was, she went into the bathroom, put the barrel of Robert’s .308-caliber hunting rifle below her chin, and pulled the trigger. Why did she have access to that gun? I bet Robert considers himself a "safe" gun owner too. Keep your guns locked and separate from your ammunition. Gun culture takes another victim.

Why do you think that she wouldn't have tried to commit suicide via another means if she didn't have access to a gun?

We have plenty of research to show that method substitution is unusual.

This research comes from a few places: looking at people who've died by suicide and the methods they used, and any previous attempts. Looking at survivors of suicide attempts, and at what methods they've used in the past. And some natural experiments, such as the introduction of catalytic convertors to cars, or switching the UK gas supply from coal gas to natural gas.

Re: Katie's New Face

#300
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your statements match neither raw data nor standardized rate: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_r...

Unless I'm misreading, the data you link suggests that the correct interpretation is that the US has basically middle-of-the-road suicide rates by European standards, no? Going by the age-standardized rates, it's sandwiched between Sweden and France in the list. Some European countries are significantly higher (Belgium, Poland), while others are significantly lower (Spain, UK), but the US doesn't seem to be a real ou…

The linked page says you can't compare suicide rates across countries.

For example, the UK statistics would tend to over count deaths. Here's the definition we use:

---begin

The National Statistics definition of suicide includes all deaths from intentional self-harm for persons aged 10 and over, and deaths where the intent was undetermined for those aged 15 and over. This definition was revised in January 2016 and further information on the impact can be found in the 2014 suicide registrations bulletin.

Deaths from an event of undetermined intent in 10 to 14 year-olds are not included because although for older teenagers and adults we assume that in these deaths the harm was self-inflicted, for younger children it is not clear whether this assumption is appropriate. Deaths from an event of undetermined intent cannot be applied to children due to the possibility that these deaths were caused by unverifiable accidents, neglect or abuse.

---end

I'm unable to find the definition used by the CDC, but I think it's likely to include language like "with the intent to end life".

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