Can only get latest figures for both countries from 2008, USA has 5 times the UK population:

UK fatal stabbings 270
UK fatal shootings 53


USA fatal stabbings 1,897
USA fatal shootings 9,484


Seems like the UK stabbing rate is quite a bit lower than the USA even though we are really frustrated by not being able to shoot one another.

Thanks for that. David and the Foreskins, great story. I shall teach my son that one so he can mention it at school when David and Goliath is brought up.

I expect it will surprise his teacher.

Humans aren't designed to have full recall, even actors generally dislike watching their own performances.

Imagine being able to watch you whole life, it could cause massive mental problems.

How would you ever get over a broken heart if you could replay all of your happiest moments alongside the mistakes you'd made.

Recording our lives is just asking for a tsunami of unforeseen consequences.

Yep, no thought about the grieving widow, children, parents. BLAM, look at ME! I can pull a trigger.

Gun nuts are like tweeny boys waiting for their bits to grow.

Surely you'd expect there to be lots of civilisations at different stages, not just one that is ignoring us and hiding.

The idea that there are only two civilisations in the universe is far less likely than there being just one in my opinion.

Also, although it is probably unwise to extrapolate too much from ourselves, any civilisation is likely to be made up of beings that either evolved via natural selection, or were designed by beings that evolved. As such they are likely to have a sense of morality, as we do, and to be interested in the welfare of other creatures, as we are.

I don't think a civilisation that could mine stars would just hide from everyone else.

No one is arguing that some Japanese did terrible things before and during the war. It doesn't justify dropping nukes or fire bombing their cities.

I'm British and we are (mostly) pretty ashamed of the way we bombed German cities.

I can understand how we ended up doing it but that doesn't excuse it.

You don't get fined $183,000 for throwing a brick through a window though.

It's supposed to be a justice system, and that fine is clearly unjust.

Strictly speaking that is true. However scientists are much more likely to have no religious belief than their native population.

Even in the USA, that weird outlier of religiosity amongst the developed world, only about a third of scientists claim to have any religious beliefs.

I've noticed that. Hardly anyone in the UK has heard of that war.

I think it's because we were still in the middle of a much bigger war with the Frogs when it happened.

I don't really see why selling to Facebook woulb be morally reprehensible.

Also, you have to consider what good things you could do with the money.

The hundreds of thousands of dollars you airily dismiss could have done a lot of good.

Doesn't that back up my implication that they're a bad idea then? They're so difficult to change that you force the elected representatives of the current population to bend the rules. Better to allow flexibility in the first place and allow everyone to scream if a bad change is proposed.

The second amendment to the US constitution seems destined to cause huge problems in my opinion. Cheap weapons / guns are going to be designed that can take out an entire room with the press of a single trigger. Will these be allowed? If not why not?

Setting down your position in stone is always going to be caught out by changes in technology, society and so on.

Part of me wants a constitutional right to Free Speech here in the UK, but in practice we do ok with a tradition of Free Speech that informs our current lawmakers. I admit some of our more egregious laws to do with hate speech are an abomination but I suspect they'll be repealed should they ever be shown to genuinely curtail proper debate of issues.

Any kind of set in stone right is bound to butt up against another supposed right, a constitution just causes paralysis.

Of course I may be wrong, the USA is doing pretty well although coming from an Old World country I'd have to say that it's still early days for the US.

The inadvertent blocking of Wikipedia was quickly reversed though. Surely a sign that the system has checks and balances?

The blocking of individual ISPs has been authorised by individual court decisions. I may (in fact I do) disagree with most of these but it is fully transparent.

When you say you are not sure what they will be blocking next month then, yes that is true, but when they do block it you'll know about it and have a chance to complain.

We have plenty of stupid laws, when they get too annoying they get reversed, that's the way the system works.

You kind of contradict yourself here. You point out that the average Brit was not put off by the IRA which I agree was a far bigger threat (sponsored by Americans I may add), but then claim that we're afraid of the Islamist idiots.

I don't think we are at all afraid of the Islamist idiots. The media doesn't barage us with stories either. Sure there are a few but most people don't take much notice.

As for surveillance, I think the prevailing attitude is that spies spy. What on Earth do we expect them to do? We pay a lot for them. they have several very large buildings in plain sight. If they start to abuse it in the ways that have been suggested then there will be a reaction as there has always been.

If you fundamentally don't trust your government, like many American posters, then you are screwed. I think the UK government is pretty useless but they're not evil or corrupt.

I admire the USA but the fundamental mistake of allowing supposed 'free speech' law to allow the debasing of politics by stopping the rich from buying politicians is becoming clearer and clearer.

Thank goodness we've never succumbed to the temptation of a constitution. Writing any rules in stone is a mistake. Arguments need to be replayed by each generation.

No idea why this has been modded up.

We (the British) do not have fabulous web-filters, we have a black list of child porn websites maintained by an independent charity called the IWF.

I'm pretty much against any kind of censorship but having a small blacklist of websites like this is pretty tame really. Not exactly 1984.

What does this mean? classistic isn't a word or even a likely typo that I can think of.

Because Americans share a common language and sense of identity.

As a Brit I'm happy for the wealthier parts of my country to subsidise in various ways (including sharing a common currency) the less well off bits.

The problem with the Euro is that people from one country are not happy to subsidise other countries that they may perceive to be workshy.

The Euro will collapse at some point because Northern Europeans think that Southern Europeans are lazy.