US Deaths caused by automobile accidents - 30,000 per year
It says even more about our priorities when you realize that the most important progress in reducing these deaths is being done as a side hobby by two guys that work at an advertising company.
Is there any good reason that this stat is 11.4 out of 100,000 instead of 1.14 out of 10,000 or say a normal percentage?
Yes. If they make it "out of 10,000" then for many countries it would be less than one. Who cares if 0.72 person dies? If they make it a million, then it will be dozens to hundreds, and few people have emotional attachments to that many people. But if they use "per 100,000", the number of deaths will be about the same as the number of family members and close friends that a normal person would have.
I just got back from the DR... wholly shit driving is insane there.
As a general rule of thumb, and contrary to common sense, a driver's recklessness is inversely proportional to his ability to afford to repair or replace the car.
Although I think this is a stupid policy, I have a very simple answer.
There is an even simpler solution: a moderation system. It seems to work pretty well for Slashdot. Moderation also works well for sites like Stackoverflow. I have never understood why news sites don't implement something similar. That way the good 1% of anonymous speech is available, and the 99% that is garbage is not seen by most readers (but is still there if anyone wants to read at -1).
You're mistakenly equating HFCS with fructose.
No I am not. Almost nobody eats pure fructose, so no one is claiming that it is a problem. They are claiming that HFCS is the problem, and they are claiming it is a problem because of the fructose.
The problem is that we consume so much fructose
This is just conjecture. There is no evidence that fructose or HFCS is actually a problem.
The rise in diabetes, heart disease, and liver damage, are seeming to indicate that fructose consumption IS in fact reaching levels that are manifesting toxic effects in the form of those diseases.
Maybe. But there is surprisingly little evidence to support that hypothesis. I was unable to find a single controlled study, with either people or animals, that linked HFCS to obesity, if the HFCS was consumed instead of other sugar. If you search, you will find a LOT of conjecture, but almost no science. Furthermore, HFCS is an American thing. Most other countries don't consume much of it. Yet the obesity epidemic is a world-wide phenomenon. Mexico has a bigger obesity problem than America, but consumes far less fructose. Fructose may be part of the problem (or may not be), but it certainly isn't the only source of the problem.
Well, maybe you should follow the links you cite.
What?!? This is what your first link says:
To the best of our knowledge there are still no GMO potatoes marketed for human consumption anywhere in the world
And this is what your second link says:
There are currently no transgenic potatoes marketed for human consumption.
And this information is clearly marked as "updated August 2013".
So both your links say the exact opposite of what you claim.
Assuming it takes a week to write each app
Bad assumption. Once you have a basic "app framework", the apps listed should take about ten minutes each.
Most people around here do it by running their air conditioner in reverse, but a lot of people use gas, too.
Where do you live? Heat pumps work best where winters are mild. In America, that usually means south of the Mason-Dixon line or Ohio River. So if you are in Arkansas, a heat pump is fine. If you are in Wisconsin, you need a furnace. They also work better when they use a ground loop rather than the outside air as a heat source. A ground loop costs more to install, but is almost always worth it.
The Netherlands is 12 times as densely populated as the US and we have overcapacity in incinerators.
The Netherlands also has a very different political system. American democracy is far more responsive to whining and nimbyism. Even a single American citizen can use the legal system to throw a monkey wrench into any proposed project. Americans have an ability to impede progress in ways that Europeans can only dream of.
Cute, but what could we possibly make in the US that can compare to the prices you get when you don't bother with labor and environmental regulations?
Aircraft
CPUs
Software
Movies
Tourism
Food
Although, except for food, these don't take up much space on container ships, so many are empty on the return trip to China.
America is the world's second biggest exporter.
The shock value isn't the problem, the number of casualties and the proportion of civilian casualties is the problem.
Another problem is that the use of chemical weapons leads to tit-for-tat retaliation while providing no decisive advantage. Just like in WWI, they will add to the carnage while doing nothing to break the stalemate. Even Hitler understood this. Nazi Germany had large stockpiles of chemical weapons, but refrained from using them even during the last days before their unconditional surrender.
there are plenty of places in the world where only 20% of kids make it too their 5th birthday!
No there isn't. If you look at infant mortality by country, you will see that even in the worst places the rate is around 10%, not the 80% that you claim.
Well lets look at it a different way. The internet is heavily controlled in China, so it doesn't help with democracy.
It hasn't helped yet. China's economy has grown by better than 10% annually for more than 30 years. That is better than any other country has ever accomplished. The government would not be voted out with a record like that. The test of democracy in China will come with the first big economic downturn. That will likely happen sometime in the next ten years.
even if for self-serving interests, he's done a helluva lot more for the world with his filthy lucre than Steve Jobs ever bothered with
True, but BG did very little before he retired. Steve Jobs never got a chance to retire. He might have been judged differently if he had lived to 80 or 90. I have done well in life, but have given very little to charity. I plan to help someday, but for now I am just too busy, and too many charities seem to spend all their money on fundraising, or on activities with detrimental unintended consequences. In fact, the most effective charity that I can see is BG's foundation. Do they accept donations?
Love may laugh at locksmiths, but he has a profound respect for money bags. -- Sidney Paternoster, "The Folly of the Wise"
