The Chat Thread

[Octave]

Strange thing I didn't know: lead poisoning is the mostly culprit for rise in violent crime a few decades ago.
Not only is there a correlation in every country, city and neighborhood, but there it also has certain neurological effects that lead to criminal behavior.

That's interesting....do you have a source link handy?

[North Star]

That's interesting....do you have a source link handy?

Skimmed through this, looks like the thing: Chinese study (Department of Neurology, Xijing)
http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1742-4682-10-13.pdf

[Parsifal]

Skimmed through this, looks like the thing: Chinese study (Department of Neurology, Xijing)
http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1742-4682-10-13.pdf

Another likely source

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/01/lead-crime-link-gasoline

Rise of crime in america supposedly correlates with introduction of lead in gasoline.  There is an interesting correlation.  Whether there is more than that will require more study, I suspect.

[Karl Henning]

Posts here on GMG don't often come so good as this.

[jlaurson]

Posts here on GMG don't often come so good as this.

how did that get stuck in the jazz-room?!? 

[Karl Henning]

A light under a bushel, truly.

[Parsifal]

Hello!  Anybody there?  (Did they turn the internet off?)

[ibanezmonster]

Out of curiosity... anyone Europeans here genuinely content or discontent with their country or how things in their country are going? (actually, this is more of a past tense question- I'm talking European financial crisis completely aside).

Or more specifically, the laid back European attitude compared to the workaholic American (or worse, East Asian) style of doing things. My dad has finally gotten out of the "Europe = bad, socialism" mentality and is starting to question whether the European style of moderate work and more social support while living more modestly rather than having as much as a king (not that we have that much) is actually healthier. 

So I'm guessing he's starting to rethink whether those happiness polls that tend to favor the more socialist, yet still capitalist Scandanavian countries, for example, are truth rather than just liberal propaganda.

He was going on again about how much works sucks and how everyone he sees on the road in their cars in the morning looks tired and holding their coffee and about to explode if the guy in front of them doesn't go fast, because they'll be in deep trouble if they are 5 minutes late.

This is why I never will start a family...

[Octave]

NS and Parsifal, late thanks for the "lead leads".  I saw that Mother Jones article initially, but was curious if there were some alternative resources.

[North Star]

Out of curiosity... anyone Europeans here genuinely content or discontent with their country or how things in their country are going? (actually, this is more of a past tense question- I'm talking European financial crisis completely aside).

Or more specifically, the laid back European attitude compared to the workaholic American (or worse, East Asian) style of doing things. My dad has finally gotten out of the "Europe = bad, socialism" mentality and is starting to question whether the European style of moderate work and more social support while living more modestly rather than having as much as a king (not that we have that much) is actually healthier. 

So I'm guessing he's starting to rethink whether those happiness polls that tend to favor the more socialist, yet still capitalist Scandanavian countries, for example, are truth rather than just liberal propaganda.

He was going on again about how much works sucks and how everyone he sees on the road in their cars in the morning looks tired and holding their coffee and about to explode if the guy in front of them doesn't go fast, because they'll be in deep trouble if they are 5 minutes late.

This is why I never will start a family...

Things have been really well here, although now our population is aging, and that will probably have a large effect in, say, ten to twenty years.
Tax funded 'free' health care, libraries, education (elementary, secondary, tertiary), subsidized orchestras et al., are all very nice though, and work splendidly. Of course they all will have / have had their funding cut lately, and universities are largely funded by  private money, so all universities outside Helsinki have gotten much less, despite ranking higher everywhere.

And consider also the other facts - our population density is half of yours, we believe slightly more in public transportation (and cycling), so we don't have to sit in traffic so much.

[Cato]

Sad yet funny at the same time: I had sent the following message to a friend at my former school:


"Happy Mother's Day!  I hope the males* in the family provide a pleasant day for you, complete with peeled grapes and tootsie massages, or at least tootsie rolls!"

* She has no daughters

So she responded a few minutes ago:

"No such luck here.  No celebration, no card. 

I live with baboons."  

No, she is not a higher primate researcher, although...maybe she is!

[ibanezmonster]

Things have been really well here, although now our population is aging, and that will probably have a large effect in, say, ten to twenty years.
Tax funded 'free' health care, libraries, education (elementary, secondary, tertiary), subsidized orchestras et al., are all very nice though, and work splendidly. Of course they all will have / have had their funding cut lately, and universities are largely funded by  private money, so all universities outside Helsinki have gotten much less, despite ranking higher everywhere.

And consider also the other facts - our population density is half of yours, we believe slightly more in public transportation (and cycling), so we don't have to sit in traffic so much.

Aging population is going to be a huge problem for a lot of countries...
Where I live, public transportation is almost non-existent, though in the city of course more prevalent (although not known as great).

Good to hear you're doing good. 

[Karl Henning]

In two days, I have seen, from whatever Internet source(s), the "original Memorial Day" credited to two different municipalities.  Just another pile-up on The Information Super-Highway . . . .

(Carbondale, IL, & Waterloo, NY, in case anyone cares.)

[Karl Henning]

I've applied for a permit to go rogue.

[PaulR]

I read that far too quickly.  I thought you said "I applied for a permit to argue". 

[Karl Henning]

No, you didn't.

[Karl Henning]

(Combination joke and Monty Python skit allusion.)

[PaulR]

(Combination joke and Monty Python skit allusion.)

The argument clinic.......

[ibanezmonster]

I think one day I might just 3D print a house...

[Karl Henning]

Ah, all those things he said . . . .