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Ask HN: What have you changed your mind about recently?

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Re: Ask HN: What have you changed your mind about recently?

#91

Post by steve19 »

Kevin_C wrote: post #75
protomyth wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do believe you are correct (I remember the same thing). People use what they have, but being dead from a knife is still dead. I find the rate of various crimes important as opposed to the tools used. Tools can be substituted.

Tools generally only have partial substitutes. (From memory only...) Suicides decreased in the UK when catalytic converters became required on cars: other means of suicide remain available, but most are harder for the potential suicide than sitting in a car with a pipe from the exhaust through the window. Knives are substitutes for guns, but it's harder to kill 10 people with a knife than with an automatic. Which may…

What you are saying is that massacres are easier with guns.

Killing one person with a knife is not harder than with a gun. A criminal willing to kill is going to do it with one, or the other, or both.

Just look at the UK. Violence is bad and there is a total ban on handguns and a near total ban on just about everything else (many restrictions and you need a purpose to own the gun - self defense and for "fun" are not reasons - eg. farming, deer huting, formal target shooting )

Re: Ask HN: What have you changed your mind about recently?

#92

Post by [deleted] »

protomyth wrote: post #86
Kevin_C wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tools generally only have partial substitutes. (From memory only...) Suicides decreased in the UK when catalytic converters became required on cars: other means of suicide remain available, but most are harder for the potential suicide than sitting in a car with a pipe from the exhaust through the window. Knives are substitutes for guns, but it's harder to kill 10 people with a knife than with an automatic. Which may…

I believe "high gun ownership correlates with high homicides" to be false. Maybe for a specific demographic or area, but in the middle of the country it just isn't so. I used to work the social work circuit in data collections and research; and the prejudices of the people doing the study show in their interpretation of the raw data and the conclusions they reach. As we were reminded of today in tragic fashion, suici…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What have you changed your mind about recently?

#93

Post by steve19 »

steve19 wrote: post #90

Nobel peace prizes. I used to see them as the ultimate award that could be earned and the ultimate award which humanity could bestow on an individual. Now I see them as a powerful and influential political tool. I think many people came to that conclusion many years ago ... I am a bit slow on the uptake.

It would be great if a award, with a substantial prize (upwards of $10 million), was created to be awarded to the person that has done the most for the human race: for peace, heath care, human dignity, human rights and freedom.

Bill Gates .. you listening? ;)

Re: Ask HN: What have you changed your mind about recently?

#94

Post by protomyth »

Kevin_C wrote: post #89
protomyth wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe "high gun ownership correlates with high homicides" to be false. Maybe for a specific demographic or area, but in the middle of the country it just isn't so. I used to work the social work circuit in data collections and research; and the prejudices of the people doing the study show in their interpretation of the raw data and the conclusions they reach. As we were reminded of today in tragic fashion, suici…

"in the middle of the country it just isn't so" ? That point of view seems rather US-centric. (Apologies if I've misinterpreted what you meant.) My point was in relation to different countries, higher gun ownership correlates with higher death by gun. I was not comparing different geographic areas within the US. It's obviously a complicated question with many influencing factors, but ignoring the availability of guns…

Yeah, I'm a little US-centric because I know the local stats better. For the most part, I blame relative economic class and family problems (e.g. abuse). I find blaming an object to mask the real problems in our lives. It's like blaming the engine when you run out of gas.

Re: Ask HN: What have you changed your mind about recently?

#95

Post by steve19 »

rrhyne wrote: post #49

Obama. He talked change and kept all the same financial advisers of the prior administrations.

I was not a Obama supporter but I really did hope that he would bring transparency into government, which is badly needed. Doing so would have used up a lot of his political capital. It would have been a great achievement and I would have cheered him on - regardless of what I thought of his policies.

I am saddened that he did not follow through and it seems unlikely that he will in the future.

Re: Ask HN: What have you changed your mind about recently?

#96

Post by steve19 »

snprbob86 wrote: post #55

I used vim to edit a config file here or there for four years of college. I always hated it. I just couldn't wrap my head around command vs insert mode. Since I never edited more than a few lines at a time, I never really learned it. I thought it was just a stupid idea. Then, about 9 months ago, it clicked. I started loving it. Now, you couldn't pry it from my cold, dead, Python editing fingers. (Although, I still co…

did any particular tutorial make it click for you?

Re: Ask HN: What have you changed your mind about recently?

#97

Post by steve19 »

booksnarf wrote: post #17

Religion. I was born & raised a devout Baptist Christian (and creationist). But in the past 5 months, I've read about 50 books and hundreds of web pages and decided that agnostic atheism [1] and evolution make more sense. Hopefully I didn't just devolve this into a religion argument... [1] "Agnostic atheist" == I can't say for certain but I think God is very improbable, and I will live my life on the assumption he is…

Christianity != Creationism

Agnostic != Evolution

Christianity != not(Evolution)

Most Christians (globally) care little about how man came into being and do not think either ideas have any impact on their faith.

It is the hardcore creationists who like to make out all Christians agree with them, and the hardcore underdog atheists who like to make out that all Christians are against them.

I don't know any Christians, and I know many, who believe that evolution and the bible are mutually exclusive ideas. They simply are not. And I wish both Atheists and Creationists would stop claiming that both ideas contradict each other.

Re: Ask HN: What have you changed your mind about recently?

#98

Post by mistermann »

anonymousDan wrote: post #59
rrhyne wrote: post #49

Obama. He talked change and kept all the same financial advisers of the prior administrations.

What about all those paycuts for bankers though? I can't imagine those happening under Bush or McCain. Or are they just cosmetic (I'm not American and not overly familiar with the details)?

They are cosmetic....check back in a year and see if the money transfer moved to a new channel or not.

Re: Ask HN: What have you changed your mind about recently?

#99

Post by mistermann »

protomyth wrote: post #87
Zarkonnen wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Switzerland is actually a very bad example to use. The unusally (for Europe) high number of firearms there is because the members of the militia army keep an assault rifle at home. This is rather different from a handgun or a shotgun, and you're not allowed to use them outside military training.

In a lot of ways, I think it is a very good example. They have access and advanced training (assault rifles are actually very hard to use). The fact that the citizens obey the law and don't use their weapons for greater crime is telling.

Correct. Guns are not the problem, culture is the problem. But if you have a bad culture, firearms can make it worse. But the reverse can also be true.

Re: Ask HN: What have you changed your mind about recently?

#100

Post by bokonist »

pg wrote: post #18

The late Roman empire, thanks to Theodosius: The Empire at Bay : http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?bi=0&bx=of... I used to have very unclear picture of the late empire. Without thinking about it too much, I bought into the pervasive idea (probably due mostly to Gibbon) that the late empire had lost its Roman mojo: that it had become barbarized (what does that mean?) and worn out (why then?). Now I have a…

Peter Heather recently wrote a very similar history which I found to be very good: http://www.amazon.com/Fall-Roman-Empire-History-Barbarians/d...

Heather argues that the Roman empire was still internally healthy, but that increasing pressure from the Persians and the European tribes eventually overwhelmed the empire. Archaeological evidence indicates that the population densities of the barbarian regions may have increased by a factor of two or three since the early days of the empire. The population was larger and more sophisticated, and thus harder to handle.

But just this year Adrian Goldsworthy has written a book countering the new revisionist view that Heather and Williams present ( http://www.amazon.com/How-Rome-Fell-Death-Superpower/dp/0300... ). Goldsworthy argues that the barbarian threat really wasn't that much greater, and that the empire collapsed from within, due to civil war and political strife.

I haven't read Goldsworthy's book yet, but it's on my list.

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