Antibiotics show free market failure

[MrJonno]

You're not a Borg by any chance, Jonno?

The Borg is a weird meme, do you really think the Enterprise is crewed by free 'individuals'. While technically its not a 'military' ship in effect warships are Borg light. The Enterprise is as much a hive organisation as the Borg is.

Yes the individuals (like we have in civilian life) have some more flexibility but its far from unlimited, we are all cog's in the machine that is society

[piscator]

You're not a Borg by any chance, Jonno?

The Borg is a weird meme, do you really think the Enterprise is crewed by free 'individuals'. While technically its not a 'military' ship in effect warships are Borg light. The Enterprise is as much a hive organisation as the Borg is.

Yes the individuals (like we have in civilian life) have some more flexibility but its far from unlimited, we are all cog's in the machine that is society

Then there's that pesky old Determinism thing...

[Blind groper]

"Actually, murder in the Old West was relatively uncommon, with notable exceptions in notable communities". 
The above was a statement by Seth.

Seth, you really should read Prof. Steven Pinker's book on the history of violence. He spends some time discussing the old west, and the murder rate was extreme. Average about 25 killings per 100,000 per year, compared to 4.3 in the USA today (and 0.9 in my country). There was even one town where the murder rate, for a period, was 1 person in 4 per year.

None of that could be called "relatively uncommon".

[Seth]

"Actually, murder in the Old West was relatively uncommon, with notable exceptions in notable communities". 
The above was a statement by Seth.

Seth, you really should read Prof. Steven Pinker's book on the history of violence. He spends some time discussing the old west, and the murder rate was extreme. Average about 25 killings per 100,000 per year, compared to 4.3 in the USA today (and 0.9 in my country). There was even one town where the murder rate, for a period, was 1 person in 4 per year.

None of that could be called "relatively uncommon".

I've seen Pinker's work, and it's shit.

[JimC]

"Actually, murder in the Old West was relatively uncommon, with notable exceptions in notable communities". 
The above was a statement by Seth.

Seth, you really should read Prof. Steven Pinker's book on the history of violence. He spends some time discussing the old west, and the murder rate was extreme. Average about 25 killings per 100,000 per year, compared to 4.3 in the USA today (and 0.9 in my country). There was even one town where the murder rate, for a period, was 1 person in 4 per year.

None of that could be called "relatively uncommon".

I've seen Pinker's work, and it's shit.

As any one from the right wing would think, him being a liberal...

[Seth]

"Actually, murder in the Old West was relatively uncommon, with notable exceptions in notable communities". 
The above was a statement by Seth.

Seth, you really should read Prof. Steven Pinker's book on the history of violence. He spends some time discussing the old west, and the murder rate was extreme. Average about 25 killings per 100,000 per year, compared to 4.3 in the USA today (and 0.9 in my country). There was even one town where the murder rate, for a period, was 1 person in 4 per year.

None of that could be called "relatively uncommon".

I've seen Pinker's work, and it's shit.

As any one from the right wing would think, him being a liberal...

And notorious anti-gun fraudster who literally makes shit up as he goes.

[JimC]

I think not. His work is fully documented with detailed sources and references. I'll take his word over the gun loonies any time...

[FBM]

5 Terrible Secrets Big Drug Companies Don't Want You to Know

[Blind groper]

Pinker is a scientist. He is Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, and he is respected by his scientific peers world wide. As a scientist, his research is dedicated to finding hard data. His writings are, as Jim pointed out, back by extensive bibliographies, and are far from 'made up'.

On murder rates.
Murder is one crime that has been of concern throughout history, for obvious reasons. This means that records of its frequency have been kept by numerous societies for the last several thousand years. We have that data. When the data is collated to show changes in murder rates, it is enlightening.

For example : in the western world, there was a major rise in murder rate towards the end of the 1960's, which stayed high till the early 1990's. Then there was a major drop. Why?

That is easily explained, since it 'coincides' exactly with the peak in the number of young adults following the baby boomer explosion of births. Murder is more frequently carried out by young male adults, from mid teens to just over 30 years of age. When there are more such young male adults, murder rates rise. After about the year 1990, the number of such people in the population dropped substantially, and so did the murder rate.

Another such pattern is murder rates in the American wild west. When areas were first populated, largely by young men, with no legal justice system, murder rates were high. When the law moved in, and when young women also became a part of that society, marrying the wild young men, murder rates dropped.

The point is that individual justice is a lousy substitute. What is needed is a full and proper legal system, with law makers, police, and a court system, and a penal system to take care of punishing the convicted criminals. When all that is in place, crime falls. If society relies on libertarian ideas of community justice, crime flourishes.

[pErvinalia]

Pinker is a scientist. He is Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, and he is respected by his scientific peers world wide. As a scientist, his research is dedicated to finding hard data. His writings are, as Jim pointed out, back by extensive bibliographies, and are far from 'made up'.

Seth doesn't believe in science. It's apparently all a Marxist conspiracy.

[mistermack]

Modern murder statistics are bolstered by the growth in drug use and prohibition and dealing.

Not that there is any easy answer. The drugs won't uninvent themselves, and prohibition isn't a clear black and white good/bad thing.

Of course, the easy availability of guns doesn't help.

[Seth]

Pinker is a scientist. He is Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, and he is respected by his scientific peers world wide. As a scientist, his research is dedicated to finding hard data. His writings are, as Jim pointed out, back by extensive bibliographies, and are far from 'made up'.

He is a hard left-wing anti gun zealot working for a hard left-wing Marxist Progressive run university notorious for harboring biased anti-gun zealots. He goes into his "research" with a predetermined conclusion he's determined to support by cherry picking whatever is useful to him and ignoring whatever is not.

As for you, you again confuse correlation with causation and ignore any data which is contrary to your predetermined conclusion.

[JimC]

Pinker is a scientist. He is Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, and he is respected by his scientific peers world wide. As a scientist, his research is dedicated to finding hard data. His writings are, as Jim pointed out, back by extensive bibliographies, and are far from 'made up'.

He is a hard left-wing anti gun zealot working for a hard left-wing Marxist Progressive run university notorious for harboring biased anti-gun zealots. He goes into his "research" with a predetermined conclusion he's determined to support by cherry picking whatever is useful to him and ignoring whatever is not.

As for you, you again confuse correlation with causation and ignore any data which is contrary to your predetermined conclusion.

Show me your academic qualifications and published research papers, so that we can judge the worth of your opinion vs a Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, plus the vast array of academics whose published and peer-reviewed papers that are his sources.

[Seth]

Pinker is a scientist. He is Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, and he is respected by his scientific peers world wide. As a scientist, his research is dedicated to finding hard data. His writings are, as Jim pointed out, back by extensive bibliographies, and are far from 'made up'.

He is a hard left-wing anti gun zealot working for a hard left-wing Marxist Progressive run university notorious for harboring biased anti-gun zealots. He goes into his "research" with a predetermined conclusion he's determined to support by cherry picking whatever is useful to him and ignoring whatever is not.

As for you, you again confuse correlation with causation and ignore any data which is contrary to your predetermined conclusion.

Show me your academic qualifications and published research papers, so that we can judge the worth of your opinion vs a Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, plus the vast array of academics whose published and peer-reviewed papers that are his sources.

It's my opinion, so no. I'm dismissing his work in the same way that BG dismisses the work of Lott et. al., out of hand and without apology.

He's an anti-gun fruitcake and fraud.

[JimC]

So basically, your opinion of Pinker can thus be roundly ignored.

Quelle surprise!