Yeah, these mass-shootings are a pretty small drop in the bucket. I am of the opinion that personal firearm ownership is not particularly desirable, so the benefits of tighter control seems worthwhile compared to the costs of making it more difficult for the average person to obtain a firearm, but I should remind myself that it probably does little to change the overall environment.

I'm happy to "give up my guns" to prevent future mass shootings much more than I am happy to give up my shoes to prevent future shoe bombers.

Well, at least it has the effect of stopping the hand-wringing about stupid gun control laws after a mass-killing - especially if the killer is an obvious nut-job who even the staunchest gun-rights advocate would refuse to go to the shooting range with, but yet is legally allowed to own a firearm.

I wonder how the stats for such killings have trended in Australia?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

By my count of this list, between 1984 and 1996 there were 12 years and 13 "massacres"/shootings (a bit more than one per year), all involving firearms. After 1996 (18 years) there are three only "massacres" listed - but they are all arsons, no shootings.

That seems pretty significant.

I always strive for poignancy.

Mostly I was trying to address the blanket "the second Australia did [remove easy access to guns], violent crime statistics went up" idea that there is a strong causal connection between lack of easy access to guns and increased violent crime. Snopes rightly said "it ain't that clear" and that statements of that nature are intellectually dishonest. One should be clear about what one is stating, and when using statistics one should have an understanding about what expected variations (for example is 12.8% actually a "marked increase" or just noise?) are likely.

Drawing any strong conclusions between the US and Australia, which have vastly different demographics and cultures, is not an easy task. The US murder rate is about eight times that of Australia, and scores about 10 points worse on crime rates and safety scores that Australia. Australia also has less than 7.5% of the USA population, so the statistics are going to be a lot noisier for the smaller population. Then again, the variation in the USA from state-to-state and region-to-region are quite large making country-wide comparisons less valid in the first place.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
http://www.numbeo.com/crime/ra...

Not to any significant degree, and the overall trend since then is down - http://www.snopes.com/crime/st...

They made a film about that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Good point!

It is possible that if this was social security benefits paid to surviving children, then even if it was paid to the child's guardian, it could still be the child's debt. But what do I know?

Who licenses porn stars? :-)

Unfortunately, the math and the concepts involved in screening decisions is not that simple. There are a number of situations where early or widespread screening can result in greater loss of life, and even more where the costs do not justify the expense. Currently there are debates worldwide over the "best" methods of screening for colon cancer as well as breast cancer because of this. Some factors that come into play for the breast cancer screening is what fraction of the detected cancers would prove to be fatal if untreated? What fraction of those undergoing treatment die due to the treatment (surgery, infection, anesthesia, etc. all have death rates). What is the false positive rate? Going beyond the simple death counting rate - how many "lives saved" should be balanced against the costs (money, time, fear, etc) that the screening produces?

The results or decisions to widely screen depend on: how common the problem being screened for is; how effective the screening is; what the false positive rate is; what the effectiveness of the treatment is (for both those with and without the condition); what the risks of treatment are (for both those with and without the condition); how dangerous the condition is untreated; how long it takes for the condition to progress; what the demographics of the group potentially being screened are; and a myriad of other factors.

As we should all know: Math is Hard!

It is a shame that some parents are scared. I am glad that the research has shown the standard schedules are both safe and effective.

I hope that this focus on autism and vaccination has not caused such as shift in research focus so that actual causes and possible therapy have not been overlooked.

If you are driving at the posted speed limit, you are in no way "forcing people to pass you on the right". If you are not following signs to "keep right except to pass" then you are subject to a ticket for that behaviour, regardless of your speed.

I don't know.

One (8 hour) day of work at minimum wage in the USA is 8 x $7.25 = $50. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M... so if some McWorker gets a speeding ticket, it seems likely it is going to cost him at least one day of income. Having everyone pay "one day of income" seems like a fair way of doing things, at least from one perspective. Sucks to be Bill Gates in that situation perhaps, but arguably it sucks much less for Bill to lose a day's wages than for our poor McWorker. Bill might feel sad, but McWorker might feel hungry.

Combustion is when something (rapidly) combines chemically with oxygen. Oxygen gas (molecules of two oxygen atoms) does not combust.

I would not be too surprised if other parts of the air (N2, H2O vapour, other gasses or particulate crap that might be around) underwent chemical changes due to the sudden shock of being pushed out of the way of the projectile, and some of those things might burn. The projectile seems to have a bunch of packing fall away as it leaves the barrel - maybe some of that stuff burns.

I think it can have side effects. People in double-blind studies often report a variety of side effects regardless of their status as in either the "active" or "control" group. I would not be surprised to learn that placebos with strong tastes or more warnings of side effects also have more reports of side effects and also more therapeutic effects too.