And to be clear, I wasn't talking about the frequency of murders, violent crime, or criminal activity in general. I was talking about incidents like the one in Isle Vista: Mass Shootings.

I never said that crime must be getting worse.

You don't have to look any farther than the article you posted and the research that Mother Jones did. The author in your article didn't like Mother Jones' criteria for defining mass shootings but they used basically the same definition used in this report from the Congressional Research Service:

http://journalistsresource.org...

Apparently the FBI uses that definition as well.

That article only shows stats until 2010 and lumps these shooting sprees in with crimes where there were motives other than just killing random people, - or where the perpetrators where not killing random people at all, but their own families.

Because it's not about logic, it's about attraction. And men often don't get what characteristics are more attractive to many women. It's not women that don't like "nice" guys and that they don't want to be treated with respect. It's that they often aren't attracted to guys who struggle socially. They might feel sorry for them, they might like them as friends, but they're not romantically attracted to them. And let's be clear, you can be too nice. If you're being nice out of a fear of rejection or lack of self confidence, people can sense that. It's not a turn on.

My fellow males, you need to project confidence. You need to be comfortable with who you are. You need to be OK with getting turned down, and not crushed by it. And what I see far too often is guys frustrated that these incredibly beautiful women aren't willing to go out with them, while ignoring those women who gladly would.

That this sort of thing appears to be happening with greater frequency.

Number one problem seems to be an increasing number people who reach a point where they have little regard for life. Their's or anyone else's. They think of themselves as victims of some sort. "Entitlement" might be an appropriate word. Rodgers definitely felt as if the world was not delivering on something it owed to him. Don't know how common this is among similar perpetrators but I'm guessing it is.

This thread focuses on nerds but all the perpetrators probably share some form of mental illness that either contributed to their social awkwardness or was aggravated by their social awkwardness. I'm not saying nerds are mentally ill but social awkwardness is usually considered one of the defining traits. There are non-nerds who suffer from this too.

I do think our culture and media often portray young adults living an idealized lifestyle that few if any actually lead. And if you do surround yourself with people who are more affluent than yourself, it is not surprising that it would lead to some feelings of resentment. The fact is that life doesn't owe you a certain level of income or a good looking girlfriend/boyfriend. Some people do not seem to get this for whatever reason.

And perhaps acts like this beget more acts like this. Even the planning stages probably give the perpetrators a feeling of power that they haven't felt before.

As for the misogyny, it was a factor in this case and it could be in others, but not always.

How many flasks of water would you have to stack up to get to the average depth of an ocean? Now imagine the water in each of those flasks expanding by just a little bit. Don't you think the cumulative amount would be noticeable?

Until recently most of the rise in ocean depth has been due to thermal expansion. Now that the ice sheets are melting at an accelerated rate, that is starting to be the main factor, but thermal expansion is still occurring.

Not by half of what? The oceans are thousands of feet deep and cover 2/3 of the planet.

water also expands as it warms.

Hmmm. Which is more fun? Making spaceships and awesome cars or making batteries for somebody else's ho-hum cars.

Tell that to this guy: http://applemanbicycles.com/re...

His business is custom built carbon fiber bikes but he got through the lean times by repairing CF frames. He still does it and he's not the only one.

It's newsworthy because in this age of constant surveillance it's amazing that anything like a commercial airliner can just disappear.

Rentals from Amazon or the iTunes store can be streamed or downloaded for later viewing. They get that you may want to watch a movie on an airplane or in the car while you have no reliable Internet connection.

I have two kids, one just out of single digits but she'll still watch the same episodes of A.N.T Farm, iCarly and others over and over again. With a Netflix and or Hulu subscription you can view whatever is in their catalog as much as you want. That includes lots of kid friendly movies and TV series. It's like having a video rental store in your home except that Netflix tends not to have newer releases.

For new releases if you have Amazon Instant video, which allows you can stream or download for a few bucks. There is however still value in having a DVD player even though you don't care to buy DVDs anymore. Redbox lets you reserve a DVD online for $1.00.

Remember that my response was to a poster who couldn't understand why anyone would see streaming as a desirable option compared to owning a hard copy. I understand why some people still prefer a DVD but there are plenty of good reasons why others don't. I get the impression that some folks don't really know what options exist today.

Personally, I don't often have a desire to see a movie more than once. Owning a hardcopy doesn't make a lot of sense when that is the case. In fact usually I can rent a movie online a few times before it would add up to the cost of buying a hard copy anyway.

I honestly don't feel like I'm missing out on much by watching HD streaming video vs a Blu-Ray and no you don't have to have an Internet connection to watch a movie you've previously downloaded.

Then some liberal, communist sympathizers had to go and ruin it. Insisted on destroying all but the lamest ones.

Of course it's apples and oranges. Relatively few people had much at stake in the production and maintenance of the nuclear arsenal. By contrast CO2 is a byproduct of our lifestyle. Any meaningful reduction will require more emphasis on energy conservation and cleaner ways to generate power.

The change will be definitely hard on some people. Most of us could benefit. We've become ridiculously addicted to gadgets that require electricity or gas. Case in point: My wife and I were looking at furniture a few weeks ago. We discovered that many recliners are now powered. We've even gotten too lazy to pull a lever to rest our fat asses on a lazy boy.

Let me explain some other things about current reality in America.

Democracy in the US has been severely eroded by big money. Federal gun control legislation that would not violate the 2nd amendment often doesn't even see the light of day due to threats from the NRA, - an organization that had $256,000,000 in revenues back in 2012. It doesn't matter if the legislation would be supported by the majority of Americans or not.

As to the "Gun Nut" comment. The constitution rightfully states that you can't take away somebody's right to bear arms because their behavior is merely "suspicious", or you don't like their politics, or you don't like their hobbies. As long as they have no previous history of felonies and they are mentally competent, they have that right.

Reality is though that lots of folks are shot for no legitimate reason by people with no felony record,- either intentionally or even accidentally. So, what to do? Fortunately the Constitution doesn't prevent the development of technology that would limit the ability of a weapon intended for self defense to be used for another purpose. Why would anyone be against that as long as using it for self defense is not unreasonably inhibited?

Note: I'm not saying wearing a watch is the right solution.