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Evidence emerges of Israeli use of phosphorus weapons in Gaza

guardian.co.uk

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Re: Evidence emerges of Israeli use of phosphorus weapons in Gaza

#51

Post by [deleted] »

palish wrote: post #35
tlrobinson wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Slightly OT, but I'm curious about the criteria for making submissions "dead". This one was briefly dead, but reappeared after a few minutes. Can posts be made "undead" by additional up votes, or was it explicitly brought back by a moderator?

The story was explicitly brought back. You can upvote a dead story, but I'm not sure whether the submitter gains karma for that, and whether that causes the story to move higher up the front page. But the story will remain dead unless necromanced. This seems like a good time to share some thoughts about killing submissions. The troubling aspects of the current "dead submission" implementation are: - You can't comment…

[deleted]

Re: Evidence emerges of Israeli use of phosphorus weapons in Gaza

#52

Post by swombat »

d0mine wrote: post #27

If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic. http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

It's probably worth noting, now that this story has been on here for a few hours, that it has produced very little worthwhile discussion - just one mention of some interesting facts about white phosphorous weapons, and a bunch of flame wars about whether this topic is appropriate for HN. Imho that's a good indication that this topic was in fact not appropriate.

Re: Evidence emerges of Israeli use of phosphorus weapons in Gaza

#53

Post by palish »

davi wrote: post #47
palish wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay. Thank you for taking the time to convey your reasoning. It's valid, and you care a lot about the issues in Gaza. I'm just concerned that newer users may use this to justify their own bad behavior, but I suppose that can be dealt with.

"... and you care a lot about the issues in Gaza." I care a lot about certain political issues but I would not try to talk about them on HN, and I bet you wouldn't either. It seems weird -- almost sycophantic -- to so readily apply a different standard to Paul Graham. The only way I think one can attempt to justify a different standard for him is by invoking the American (only?) expression, 'his house, his rules'. In…

Yeah, there's an element of 'his house, his rules'. But mostly it's just too taxing to continue caring. If he wants one high-quality political article on the site, fine, it doesn't really matter. The site didn't explode as a result. And there are a lot of interesting things to do besides trying to win a debate. Right now, you could be conversing with someone through a Mac Mini: http://coworkthailand.com/say/

I'm also tired of coming off sounding like a negative person. "you support a political submission!" "stop group-downvoting this guy for his opinion!" "we can't click through a killed submission!" "you disabled someone's account for possibly dubious reasons!" -- these are not my issues, and it's hard to feel like any of them actually matter in the big picture, and if they don't matter, why care? And it feels against my character to speak like that anyway.

So I've decided to find out where the site will steer us rather than wrestling to steer the site.

Re: Evidence emerges of Israeli use of phosphorus weapons in Gaza

#54

Post by azharcs »

palish wrote: post #31
azharcs wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious things have been happening in that part of the world for more than 2000 years, and will continue to happen long after we're all dead. Your argument seems like "This is not my problem, Why do i care" kind of thing. It is very important for smart people to bring out a solution to this serious conflict which has continued for almost 60 years. We can clearly write it off as an conflict which cannot be solved and…

Okay guys, listen up. I think azharcs is on to something. SwellJoe, you're in charge of making contact with the Palestinian leadership. unalone, you'll be writing excellent-yet-slightly-sensational articles that will shake the belief system of the zealots perpetuating this conflict. stcredzero's job is to apply Buddhist techniques to invoke a general aura of well-being and connectedness. pg, you're going to set up an…

ouch!!!

When i said we can bring a solution, I certainly didn't keep in mind Power Rangers or Captain Planet. It was more like, why be a pessimist, when you can be optimist about things around which are not right.

Re: Evidence emerges of Israeli use of phosphorus weapons in Gaza

#55

Post by brl »

Maktab wrote: post #17

White Phosphorus is not a banned substance, nor is there anything obviously illegal about Israel's use of it in this conflict. It's certainly not a chemical weapon or any other sort of WMD, despite what some of the more breathless reporting would imply. The only international convention which may regulate the use of White Phosphorus is Protocol III of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, however as WP is d…

Does this look obviously illegal to you? It does to me.

http://www.geenstijl.nl/archives/images/fosforgroot.jpg

I think this is a world record for number of different war crimes captured in a single photograph.

Re: Evidence emerges of Israeli use of phosphorus weapons in Gaza

#57

Post by Dilpil »

ComputerGuru wrote: post #18
Rod wrote: post #4

"A woman described how on Tuesday Israeli forces "started to fire phosphorus bombs against the people" Please. Since when is a civilian woman a reliable source of information on weaponry? Gimme a break! Bad journalism. What else could one expect from the Guardian?

Forget civilian women. Doctors from the Red Cross, the Doctors without Borders association, the UN, and others in Gaza providing aid have described the burns on the affected victims, many of which arrive at the conclusion that these burns can only be had as a result of white phosphorus. Take a look at this Creative Commons documentary by AlJazeera (forget their bias, just look at the facts presented by authorities in…

A small nitpick: Al Jazeera isn't biased any more than mainstream American networks are biased. In fact, many right wingers in the Arab world call it a mouthpiece for the west.

Re: Evidence emerges of Israeli use of phosphorus weapons in Gaza

#58

Post by davidw »

azharcs wrote: post #54
palish wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay guys, listen up. I think azharcs is on to something. SwellJoe, you're in charge of making contact with the Palestinian leadership. unalone, you'll be writing excellent-yet-slightly-sensational articles that will shake the belief system of the zealots perpetuating this conflict. stcredzero's job is to apply Buddhist techniques to invoke a general aura of well-being and connectedness. pg, you're going to set up an…

ouch!!! When i said we can bring a solution, I certainly didn't keep in mind Power Rangers or Captain Planet. It was more like, why be a pessimist, when you can be optimist about things around which are not right.

Yes, but you didn't say "be an optimist" - you argued that I don't care, because I don't want to discuss it on this site, which is a bad argument. There are plenty of issues that I care deeply about for which this site is not an appropriate forum.

> 'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing' - Edmund Burke

Discussing the issue on internet forums is so close to "doing nothing" as to be virtually indistinguishable.

Re: Evidence emerges of Israeli use of phosphorus weapons in Gaza

#59

Post by pg »

davidw wrote: post #58
azharcs wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ouch!!! When i said we can bring a solution, I certainly didn't keep in mind Power Rangers or Captain Planet. It was more like, why be a pessimist, when you can be optimist about things around which are not right.

Yes, but you didn't say "be an optimist" - you argued that I don't care, because I don't want to discuss it on this site, which is a bad argument. There are plenty of issues that I care deeply about for which this site is not an appropriate forum. > 'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing' - Edmund Burke Discussing the issue on internet forums is so close to "doing nothing" as to be…

Discussing the issue on internet forums is so close to "doing nothing" as to be virtually indistinguishable.

I don't think that's true. People are very much influenced by things other people say, and there is nothing magic about the web that makes this stop working online. I've often been influenced by things I read in forums.

And in this specific case, you're particularly mistaken, because the situation is so much influenced by public opinion. If everyone in the world was talking now about what's happening in Gaza, the Israelis would have to stop.

Re: Evidence emerges of Israeli use of phosphorus weapons in Gaza

#60

Post by aswanson »

davidw wrote: post #58
azharcs wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ouch!!! When i said we can bring a solution, I certainly didn't keep in mind Power Rangers or Captain Planet. It was more like, why be a pessimist, when you can be optimist about things around which are not right.

Yes, but you didn't say "be an optimist" - you argued that I don't care, because I don't want to discuss it on this site, which is a bad argument. There are plenty of issues that I care deeply about for which this site is not an appropriate forum. > 'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing' - Edmund Burke Discussing the issue on internet forums is so close to "doing nothing" as to be…

If this internet forum existed in when I was an undergrad and I knew about it, the information and conversations shared back then would certainly have shaped my life direction.
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