What's in the News

Quote from: latefordinner on June 10, 2013, 12:13:57 PM

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Anonymous Hacker Who Outed Steubenville Rapists Facing Longer Jail Time Than Actual Rapists

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Guess that means the newspaper columnist is going to get 20 years for reporting it

It's getting harder and harder to tell which country is home and which one we're guests in.

Make a plot of the freedom/control ratio vs. time over the last 20 years.  Slap up the USA (or UK or wherever else) vs. that Big Silly place we all love.  Is it just me, or is the accelerating US downward trend about to cross the gradual upward trend of the other?

Not for a long time. I've had this from students about when the government in UK does something undemocratic as if China is better and I always point out that you hear about this stuff when it happens in the UK...if these stories happened in China they wouldn't get anywhere near the news unless some yanks made a campaign about it so that people in the West knew about it.

One of the reasons these stories are in the news in the UK and USA is that there is a gradual, top-down process of cultural change to alter people's perceptions about concepts such as rights, freedom, etc. It takes time to make the switch from citizen with rights to the full corporate model of compliant consumer with stuff.

Well if you say so, but I was just saying it's nothing like China where the government is just like 'Yeah of course we censor stuff, do you think we'd trust you lot to know how the Chinese government works'

They have confirmed that the arsonist died in the burning bus:

Police in Xiamen have identified a suspect they believe responsible for the bus blaze that killed 47 people on Friday.
On Saturday, authorities named Chen Shuizong, a native of the city in Fujian province, as the prime suspect. He was among the passengers who died.
According to the city government's information office, police raided Chen's home and discovered a will "in which he revealed despair about his life".
He was identified through footage recorded by a security camera on the bus, a police officer close to the investigation said on condition of anonymity.
He said initial findings suggested at least 10 liters of gasoline was used to start the blaze.
Flames swept through the rapid transit bus as it traveled on an elevated road between the city's Caitang and Jinshan stations at about 6:20 pm.
The vehicle had been carrying about 90 passengers, Huang Wenhui, spokesman for the city government, said on Saturday.
He confirmed the death toll and said 34 people had also been injured.

http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2013-06/09/content_16596340.htm

This is not what I read. According to the article I saw (which wasn't on CD, but I can't rememeber where) this was the last-straw act of a man who had been petitioning against an injustice in his life to, surprise surprise, no avail. I'll have a look for the article.


EDIT "On Thursday, Chen wrote on his microblog that he had been a street vendor since 1994 and had been bullied for years by urban management officers.

He had recently applied for a pension but was refused several times because the government said he did not qualify. His microblog was still accessible yesterday morning but was blocked in the afternoon."

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1256734/depressed-vendor-blamed-deadly-xiamen-bus-fire

Bullied or not, anyone who sets fire to a busload of people wasn't exactly playing with a full deck to begin with.

I'm thinking we should set up public suicide booths.  If someone is so annoyed at the world that he/she wants to end it all, just can step into a clear box, latch the door from the inside, and end it all by whatever means.  No one can stop it, and the person can't harm or kill any bystanders.

For those wanting something a little bigger - have a large, fenced off concrete pad next to a 30 story building.  On the roof overlooking the pad, there's a diving board.


Yeah, maybe my ideas are wrong.  Then again, they utterly rock in comparison to getting incinerated by some screwed up moron who has a problem (real or imagined) and decides to share his fiery exit with others who picked the wrong bus on the wrong day.

Right on EL as a current resident of Xiamen who has not yet dared to go on the BRT since the "accident" and who has had her fill of 20 years of Muslim Suicide attacks on public transportation I vote "public Suicide Booth" yeah!

I think Kurt Vonnegut beat you to that idea, EL, in his 1968 short story "Welcome to the Monkey House" in which the overpopulation of Earth has been solved by Suicide Parlors in which Suicide Hostess are employed to kill you painlessly. 

only in China...

Gaokao invigilator gets beaten up by angry parents for refusing bribe
http://shanghaiist.com/2013/06/11/gaokao_invigilator_confiscates_students_phone_angry_parents_try_to_bribe_and_then_attack_him.php
man oh man...

I think Kurt Vonnegut beat you to that idea, EL, in his 1968 short story "Welcome to the Monkey House" in which the overpopulation of Earth has been solved by Suicide Parlors in which Suicide Hostess are employed to kill you painlessly. 

Various suggestions have been made before, but this time I'm thinking we need to seriously take action on the concept.  The number of people who want to share their suicidal depression with innocent bystanders seems to be growing.

Yes, it's harsh.  I've lost a couple of friends to suicide and recently had one completely disappear after sending a message that could be interpreted as a suicide note.  If someone REALLY wants to die, it would be nice to have a chance to talk them out of it - but only if this doesn't endanger innocent people.

I'd rather lose a dozen friends who really decided that their time had come to die than to lose one friend who was standing too close to some moron who decided to torch himself.


As for suicide hostesses, I wonder if any would have a big enough . . . chest to allow a guy to be suffocated.

EL, I think you are missing the point of why people, like that man on the bus, do what they do. If they just wanted to commit suicide, they would. It is about the spectacle, not their demise. Indeed, it is idiotic, but people do not set fire to a bus, shoot up a diner or cause mass fatalities due to suicidal depression, they do it for the arguments that will follow, or for fame, hence the many shooting-at-random-in-public-places seen all over the world, morons chasing Charles Mansonesgue fame or notoriety I guess, ending up killing themselves as they are unable to deal with the incarceration and guilt afterwards. I don't think a suicide booth would have any effect on these deluded individuals.
In Vonnegut's story, the Hostesses are pretty but as everyone is also forced to take libidal suppresive drugs, the size of their bosoms are of no consequence...it is a very odd story 

Baby survives parents' global warming suicide pact
A seven-month-old girl survived for three days alone with a bullet in her chest after being shot by her parents as part of a suicide pact over their fears about global warming.

Suicides are on the rise in many countries. It's becoming a significant trend. In Guangzhou, your anonymous country men will help you if you get cold feet.

http://shanghaiist.com/2013/06/12/baby_in_intensive_care_after_nurse_accidentally_feeds_it_baijiu.php

 

http://shanghaiist.com/2013/06/12/baby_in_intensive_care_after_nurse_accidentally_feeds_it_baijiu.php

 

Another candidate for a Darwin Award or the next contestant on the Springer Show.

Hey, I have no idea what this is, so let me give it to a baby. And she's a friggen nurse!

 On the bright side, that baby is now well equipped to deal with a lifetime of tiresome baijiu fueled business meetings and negotiations. You DO build up a tolerance to the stuff, you know. You're just not supposed to do it all at once when you're 3 days old. 

I think that we have to accept responsibility for this stuff that our society throws up. I mean of course we can just say that it's mad people doing these terrible things as if we'd never fantasised about doing anything like that.