Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[smjjames]

Just went to the YMCA - they had a sign up warning about the dangers of drowning, complete with statistics.

One of those statistics, though, stated that African-American kids were 70% more likely to something involving drowning. Hispanic kids clocked in at 50% and Caucasian kids were at 40%.

How the hell did they get those statistics? What's the point of placing statistics tied to certain ethnicities? I am confused. Also, YMCA, I am disappoint. I'm not sure why, but I'm sure I should be.

Sounds like they just took a statistic from somewhere (crime statistic maybe?) and stuck labels on it.

All I know is that plenty of people here in the States believe that the world is roughly 6,000 years old and God created it as-is in exactly six normal days.

* Sirus shrugs

Back to the Flat-Earther stuff, I sincerely hope that it's a publicity shock stunt.

Not according to the articles. Also some of them believe that the Earth is a disc ringed by ice. What's passed the ice? Nothing, they hold that the ice goes for infinity. That would be pretty cool if it was true, unlimited heat sink and supply of water + space.

Theres so many logic holes in that...........

Sounds somewhat like the Minecraft world, with the furthest reaches being immense mountains stretching to forever, though it's actually corruption or something like that.

[Tack]

Trying to read news, but I think it's still too pushy for me.
Even the leftist stuff I'd normally agree with re: climate change and whatnot all comes across as giving the best view and the least facts.
There's got to be some company out there who believes in just telling it how it is and letting people make their own assessments.

[hector13]

Black folk are less likely to know how to swim, at least in America. Old-ass Beeb article.

Remember we're only a few decades removed from segregated public swimming pools.

[smjjames]

Even if the statistic were accurate and theres truth behind it, it still seems wrong to plug an ethnic based statistic into the warning about drowning.

[AzyWng]

Even if the statistic were accurate and theres truth behind it, it still seems wrong to plug an ethnic based statistic into the warning about drowning.

My thoughts exactly!

[Tawa]

Now that I think about it, there are some flat-earther "explanations" I've never heard. I'm familiar with the "gravity is caused by the earth traveling upward" nonsense, the ice wall around the earth thing, and the blanket excuse common to conspiracy theories that every scientist, naval captain, pilot, and astronaut in the entire world is in on it, but, like, how thick do they think the Earth is, and what do they think happens if you dig deep enough? How do airline pilots make the trip from California to Japan feel so much shorter than it supposedly actually is? Why is this shadowy cabal of airline pilots and astronomers pushing their round-earth narrative; what's in it for them? If there's this giant wall of ice, when was the Long Night and when will the Others come back?

[smjjames]

We ALL know what happens if you dig deep enough.

Sometimes I guess it's just people going "NO! I don't want to believe the status-quo!". Though when they start indoctrinating their children on it.....

[Reelya]

Black folk are less likely to know how to swim, at least in America. Old-ass Beeb article.

Remember we're only a few decades removed from segregated public swimming pools.

Silly, it's because whypipo have the blood of the Reptilian overlords in them. Natural affinity for the water.

But seriously the BBC article mentions that poor whites often can't swim either. I'd like to know what the figures are like adjusted for income / poverty. Is it prediminantly a race issue or a class issue? That would change how you'd deal with it.

[smjjames]

Black folk are less likely to know how to swim, at least in America. Old-ass Beeb article.

Remember we're only a few decades removed from segregated public swimming pools.

But seriously the BBC article mentions that poor whites often can't swim either. I'd like to know what the figures are like adjusted for income / poverty. Is it prediminantly a race issue or a class issue? That would change how you'd deal with it.

I'd be curious as to whether it happens more in rural vs urban/suburban, though the likely reason is simply a lack of access to public pools or other opportunities to learn how to swim. The BBC article does make note that in the UK, swimming is part of the cirriculum, but I don't see that being particularily viable since plenty of schools are already poor and a pool would be the least of their needs.

[milo christiansen]

The local newspaper reported that a local school recently tore out their pool, since almost no one used it anymore.

It seems most people who want to swim have a backyard pool or pond nowadays. Small pools are cheap, so that's not a barrier, and out here in the sticks space isn't a problem either.

[Tack]

So I've recently been thinking on Jaywalking and alignment squares.
I'm a serial jaywalker. Self-confessed. I will actively avoid 'pushing the button' at every opportunity because it's a permanent change to the flow of traffic.
Depending on the intersection, more time will be allotted to allow pedestrian movement, or traffic windows which would have opened are closed to accommodate them - which when there's a single person crossing is a waste of everyone's time for one person's safety.
So I avoid it when I'm alone. I look at the traffic lights, figure out who's going now and next, and cross in the gaps.

I'd assume this would make me Chaotic Good. Breaking the law in order so that I can spare others a little grief.
That would make me think most people who hit the lights and wait are Lawful Good, but if I'm 'good' because I'm actively thinking about others, is a person who is doing it because it's the law less 'good' than me?
Does that make button-pushers Lawful Neutral?

Then there's the utter fucking renegades - those who push the button, and then see a gap in traffic and decide to cross anyway.
Two minutes in the future when the computer gets to their turn, drivers will be halted and inconvenienced by the ghost of pedestrian past. It's saddening.
I'd see them as Chaotic Evil, but maybe they'd see themselves as Chaotic Neutral.

Meanwhile, I've been in a situation where I've opted to not hit the button and crossed, but left a Lawful standing on the side of the road, thinking I HAD hit the button and perpetually waiting for his turn to come up and the little green man to take his number.
Once across the road I tried to pantomime that I hadn't pushed the button, but I don't think he got the gist and frankly I didn't have enough self-esteem to stand on the side of the road gesturing like an idiot to a stranger.
Would that stranger, then, see me as a Chaotic Evil? Depends how long they stood there.

I wonder if there would be a way to show pedestrian patterns as an alignment grid, and what habits would sit where. What do people see my habits as? What do people see theirs as?

[Bumber]

I will actively avoid 'pushing the button' at every opportunity because it's a permanent change to the flow of traffic.

Or maybe it does nothing at all.

(At least some of them do, though.)

[Tack]

IS IT WORTH THE RISK?

[inteuniso]

IS IT WORTH THE RISK?

Where would the thrill go if you played it safe?

[hector13]

I've pressed the button without needing to go across the road.

Then again, where I'm from, jaywalking isn't a crime, and I knew the lights I regularly crossed at well enough to know what order they went and when it was safest to cross without pressing the button.