Print

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

[MetalSlimeHunt]

My respect for that woman has regenerated a lot (I was aghast when I learned she was flying back to Iran to carry out the punishment. I found it to be an endorsement of all things that are wrong in Iranian society and which led to her attack in the first place).

According to her, waiting until the last possible moment and then halting the blinding was her plan ever since she pursued it as a punishment, with the intended goal of deterring someone else from carrying out an acid attack (apparently, acid attacks are a thing in Iran, or so I've been told), lest the next victim be less merciful. I imagine getting some emotional payback against her attacker was also satisfying, though.

[Truean]

When a city, village or municipality files for bankruptcy, it is called Chapter 9. It is incredibly rare....
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Cashstrapped-RI-city-files-apf-1809896377.html?x=0
$80 Million in unfunded pension liabilities....

This is the sad result of mismanagement and why I don't care about people saying they have the "choice" in a representative government to decide certain funding issues. People must be made to understand and account for their choices and votes. Otherwise nothing works.

19000 people $80,000,000 in debt. = $4,210.52 per resident. It's not impossible to pay off, especially with financing over a few years, but they just don't want to do it, because they are so adverse to taxes they can't think.... That doesn't factor in a progressive sliding scale charging rich people more even. In this instance bankruptcy = laziness on the town's part. They shouldn't be allowed to do this and should be forced to pay.... That would be against their will, kicking and screaming if need be, while being told, "you will comply." Garnish wages bank accounts, whatever.... Tax Liens....

$4,210.52 Divided out over 10 years in principal would be $421.06/ year (about $35.09/month) ( plus whatever interest they'd pay. Again, that's just per capita straight; not charging the rich more. This seriously isn't hard.... Are people just not willing to sit down with a calculator or what? Gee, $35/month to save the town. Na, not worth it, that'd be a tax increase, O noes! Anything but that. [facepalm]. The state has actually taken over this town.... The mayor has been demoted to an "adviser."

If I was the bankruptcy judge on this case I'd throw it out of my court with a scathing review.... These are retirees we're talking about. The answer can't be, "let's just throw everyone under the bus." Old people having to eat cat food = not good....

[sonerohi]

Sadly, our nation is run by people who think you can get out debt by ruining your income and buying more shit. "No taxes, fund everything, fucking win!" does not a winner make.

[Africa]

I can't believe "cyclists" is one of the top results for anger. Cause we make motorists suffer SO much 

Cyclists may not refer to you. Do you use hand signals, stay in one lane, and keep a cool head? If yes, you are not a cyclist. Do you weave across lanes, pedal slowly (5 mph slow) and flip shit and assault cars at stop signs and red lights? If yes, you are a cyclist. My friend still has scuffs across the hood of his van where a cyclist lifted and threw his bike at it.

Correction. I am a cyclist. Those latter guys are dipshits and probably hipsters.

[Virex]

I think it just counts how often a certain word is used, without context. So filling in "As a cyclist, I hate people who suddenly change direction" would mean a hit for both cyclist and people...

[Lysabild]

The fact that people in cars are so busy cursing cyclists, while often not being any better themselves, is really just pissing me off.

[Siquo]

Correction. I am a cyclist. Those latter guys are dipshits and probably hipsters.

Correction: A cyclist is either a professional, or a hipster. There's no word for something that Everyone does.

[MonkeyHead]

On the other hand, sometimes those on 2 wheels get the rough deal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzE-IMaegzQ

[Miggy]

Correction. I am a cyclist. Those latter guys are dipshits and probably hipsters.

Correction: A cyclist is either a professional, or a hipster. There's no word for something that Everyone does.

Is saddened that none of those in Amsterdam are wearing bicycle helmets.

[MonkeyHead]

Are Cycle Helmets an illusion of saftey? Would love to see some stats on how many people suffer major cranial injuries while cycling, and if thereis a link between the prevalence helmet wearing and said injuries.

[Truean]

http://news.yahoo.com/conservatives-praise-boehner-deal-vow-no-votes-200643696.html

What is this triple dipped BS? Conservatives are praising Boehner but not voting for his bill:

"I stood up at the end” of the conference meeting “and said ‘I could not be more proud of how our leadership’s handled this,’” said Utah Republican Jason Chaffetz, another firm “no” vote, “I’m a bigger supporter now of John Boehner than I’ve ever been.”

You've never been a bigger Boehner supporter, but you won't vote to support him...?

Translation from Bullshit to English: These conservative politicians promised impossible things and when they sat down with the indisputable facts of the real world, it proved their political ideology was completely unworkable. There was absolutely no choice but to raise the debt ceiling and [gasp] reform social security, probably raise taxes and borrow until we do, period. They got elected to "cut the fat from Washington," except when they got there they found out that there wasn't much "fat" to trim: SSI, medicare, food stamps, unemployment benefits, you really can't cut any of that without putting people out in the streets and making the economy even worse....

They don't like facing the real world and they know they'll inevitably catch hell from the people who voted them into office for doing so instead of blindly following the political ideology to eternal gridlock.... The cost of doing so would've been to tank the entire country by defaulting.

They will vote no so they can say "see it wasn't me, don't get mad at me," but they all support the man and his plan and know they would've been forced to do the exact same thing....

[Siquo]

Is saddened that none of those in Amsterdam are wearing bicycle helmets.

Why? Do you own stock in a bicycle helmet factory?

They're not necessary because:
- motorists (cars) are a lot more cautious, since they are always 50% liable in collisions. This means that if a cyclist hits your car while you are standing still, you are still 50% liable for any damages.
- people hardly cycle for fun, it's mostly about commuting.
- racing bikes aren't common, so it's not as if people are going at full speed
- they look ridiculous
- if you wear one, you look like an USAian (this is a redundant point, see the previous )
- net benefits of bike helmets have not conclusively been proven (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_helmet)

[Leafsnail]

It's odd, because when helmets are involved, some people seem to throw away the idea that "correlation does not imply causation" and say that trends vaguely showing an increase in accidents and helmets prove that helmets cause accidents (because obviously helmets are the only possible factor).

There's a Cochrane Review that seems to come out in favour of helmets.  I'd say they're pretty trustworthy and they normally produce some pretty good meta-analyses.  Their conclusion was:

We found no randomized controlled trials, but five well conducted case-control studies met our inclusion criteria. Helmets provide a 63 to 88% reduction in the risk of head, brain and severe brain injury for all ages of bicyclists. Helmets provide equal levels of protection for crashes involving motor vehicles (69%) and crashes from all other causes (68%). Injuries to the upper and mid facial areas are reduced 65%.

[Siquo]

It's a study conducted in the US. For several reasons mentioned, there's a lot of difference in cycling there or here.

[Miggy]

Is saddened that none of those in Amsterdam are wearing bicycle helmets.

Why? Do you own stock in a bicycle helmet factory?

They're not necessary because:
- motorists (cars) are a lot more cautious, since they are always 50% liable in collisions. This means that if a cyclist hits your car while you are standing still, you are still 50% liable for any damages.
- people hardly cycle for fun, it's mostly about commuting.
- racing bikes aren't common, so it's not as if people are going at full speed
- they look ridiculous
- if you wear one, you look like an USAian (this is a redundant point, see the previous )
- net benefits of bike helmets have not conclusively been proven (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_helmet)

Spoilering since this is going slightly tangential to topic now, but I still want to leave this as a final post on the subject.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I've biked ever since I was 10, to and from school and to and from anywhere I needed to go that didn't absolutely require a car (i.e. longer trips). I feel myself a quite capable cyclist.

Yet I still crashed when I was 18 years old, in a corner I'd ridden through hundreds of times before, through no fault but my own. I simply had too much speed in a too tight corner and I slipped. No cars or pedestrians were involved, just me.

I landed flat on my face, getting my upper lip torn up and nearly pulling out one of my front teeth. A helmet wouldn't have helped me. But I feel lucky that I did land on my face, on the flat asphalt. I could've fallen further to the right and cracked my temple on the curb. I could've turned while falling, and hit the back of my head on the asphalt instead of my face. I could've done all sorts of things that, in my mind, could've resulted in far worse damage.

I feel I'm lucky I only have a small scar instead of a healed cracked skull coupled with some sort of brain-trauma. Sure, I'm not certain that landing the wrong way could've caused massive further damage, maybe even death, but I still feel I got off cheap.

tl;dr, when you bike a lot, it's arrogant to try and assume that you're not going to crash at some point. I crashed, entirely on my own, in a corner I knew perfectly well, and I'm not a beginner to cycling. And then comes the question: When you do eventually crash, do you want to be wearing the helmet, or do you want to be without the helmet?