Today I learned that buoyant inflatable balloons have been around a lot longer than I thought.
The Montgolfier brothers demonstrated the first hot-air balloon in summer 1783. They also invented parachutes.
Kropotkin escapes from prison
51–60 of 95 posts
Re: Kropotkin escapes from prison
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even a "suspected" serial killer isn't a serial killer until convicted and jailed as such (innocent until proven guilty) if they had access to the street to try and make their getaway.
The whole "innocent until proven guilty" entitles the accused to certain rights, but it doesn't mean everyone has to act like they are 100% definitely innocent. Taken to the extreme, that would mean you couldn't even arrest someone suspected to being a serial killer until they were convicted. Would make it a little difficult to make them stand trial...
The question is about killing the suspect.
Re: Kropotkin escapes from prison
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes and I also find the term “libertarian communist” useful to describe him (and myself).
Those two things seem at odds to me.. how do you consider yourself both libertarian and communist?
Libertarian became co-opted to mean the modern “right-libertarian” only in the 1960s; before that it basically meant anarchist.
Re: Kropotkin escapes from prison
#54Why is this on here? What's the significance and should have kept the missing date from the post title
My guess? It’s interesting and humorous.
Re: Kropotkin escapes from prison
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
Many western countries don't even bother trying to prevent in escapes for some of their prisons. For instance in Germany about 20% of prisoners could run away daily - when they leave the prison to go to work or whatever ("open prisons"). But less than one in a hundred do. I probably don't need to tell you about some of the special Scandinavian prisons. Most people just want to get their sentence behind them, not beco…
a 1% escape rate seems egregious
Wouldn’t it be less than 0.2%? It parsed to me as less than 1 out of 100 out of those who have the opportunity via work release or other community integration initiatives.
Re: Kropotkin escapes from prison
#56Today I learned that buoyant inflatable balloons have been around a lot longer than I thought.
And a good reminder to keep your plans simple.
"In fact, on that morning, his friends had discovered that there was not a single red balloon for sale in all the markets of St. Petersburg. At length, they obtained an old one from a child, but it no longer flew. In desperation, they bought a red rubber ball and attempted to inflate it with hydrogen; but when they released it, it floated only a few feet up, stopped just short of the top of the courtyard wall, and drifted back down to them. Finally, they tied it to the top of a woman’s umbrella, and she walked back and forth on the street, holding the umbrella as high above her head as she could—but not high enough".
Re: Kropotkin escapes from prison
#57Uncontracted title: "June 30, 1876: Peter Kropotkin Escapes from Prison, A Tale of Derring-Do on the Occasion of His Birthday". I had wondered who the heck Kropotkin was.
For those wondering, Kropotkin was a Russian anarchist philosopher. He’s most famous for “The Conquest of Bread”.
He was also a biologist, countering Darwin by stating there is as much (or more) cooporation in nature as there is conflict
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_Aid:_A_Factor_of_Evol...
Re: Kropotkin escapes from prison
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
Those two things seem at odds to me.. how do you consider yourself both libertarian and communist?
Libertarian became co-opted to mean the modern “right-libertarian” only in the 1960s; before that it basically meant anarchist.
Which has even less to do with communism though.
Re: Kropotkin escapes from prison
#59That was great. While in jail I only had two serious opportunities to escape. The first an unscheduled incoming call from an embassy official meant I was brought to a secure area to use a special phone. It was right by the sally port [0] which normally has at least one door closed. Both were open. I could have run directly out to the street. The guards do not carry their guns inside the jail. The second was on a run…
Surely even if they had guns, murdering you is not an appropriate response to a possible escape?
In many (most?) countries, cops often get away with killing people without actual cause which could justify a non-cop killing a person. And if the person killed is stereotypically disdained (prisoner, member of oppressed ethnic group, homeless person etc.) - then they almost always get away with it.
Re: Kropotkin escapes from prison
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
Libertarian became co-opted to mean the modern “right-libertarian” only in the 1960s; before that it basically meant anarchist.
Which has even less to do with communism though.
Not really, Anarcho-Communism, while not Marxist, is communist insofar as it is one of the remaining strains of "Idealistic Communism" as Marx and Engels would call the various worker's movements from before Marx' Scientific Materialism.