|
Zombie Raptor posted:I did not intend to start any conversation about knocking or touching on wood--it really doesn't matter that much. That being said, it was entertaining to check the thread again to see all these posts about before it. You are a very paranoid person. Suddenly I realize I am not alone in this world. I shall call you brother. Also, this sort of thing is exactly what I think of whenever I respond to a craiglist ad. It's why I email it to people under the guise of "LOOK WHAT I'M GETTING (AND WHERE I WILL HAVE LAST BEEN SHOULD I DISAPPEAR)" and try to be on the phone when I do it. I feel all kinds of crazy. And then I see articles like that. And I think "no. no, it's the world that is crazy".
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2013 05:22
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 9, 2024 15:03 |
|
|
Just remembered this murder for some reason. Unsolved murders always freak me out, but the brutality of this one is just terrifying, considering that there are zero suspects listed. Was it a random hookup gone terribly wrong or a hate crime? No one knows. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Rashawn_Brazell
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2013 05:31
|
|
|
Frostwerks posted:Um, it's knock on wood. You want to knock on wood otherwise people will think you're a deviant on the internet. In the UK we say 'touch wood'. We also don't use the word 'wood' that much for, you know, the other thing.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2013 07:00
|
|
|
into the void posted:You are a very paranoid person. Suddenly I realize I am not alone in this world. I shall call you brother. It is somewhat comforting to know that I'm not the only person this paranoid. At least the things I worry about have some fairly reasonable justifications, I suppose. I hope that's the sort of thing that distinguishes a paranoid person from a schizophrenic paranoid person, but honestly I don't know enough about it so I'm really just talking out of my rear end, there.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2013 07:05
|
|
|
Zombie Raptor posted:It is somewhat comforting to know that I'm not the only person this paranoid. At least the things I worry about have some fairly reasonable justifications, I suppose. I hope that's the sort of thing that distinguishes a paranoid person from a schizophrenic paranoid person, but honestly I don't know enough about it so I'm really just talking out of my rear end, there. The fact that my parents have two always-on webcams bugs the poo poo out of me. I thankfully own none, otherwise I'd be doing the same thing.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2013 07:52
|
|
|
An Old Boot posted:The fact that my parents have two always-on webcams bugs the poo poo out of me. I thankfully own none, otherwise I'd be doing the same thing. Also, to further illustrate the paranoia, I sometimes get concerned that even with the camera built into my laptop screen duct taped over, they could still use the mic. Now that I think of it, I could probably mute it or something and at least try that way. The internet is an incredibly untrustworthy "place." Edit: A podcast that I happen to enjoy called Caustic Soda (I've no idea who here may be familiar with it and who isn't, or even if I've mentioned it before, but it is a group of Canadians who are mostly informative/educational about dark, morbid, or otherwise generally interesting things (though I will be entirely honest and say that there are times when they annoy me with some of their humor, musical selections and a handful of their opinions, I really feel that it's overall quite tolerable)) released an episode yesterday about a topic that seems to get a lot of our "love" in this thread: Cruise Ships. Namely, the plethora of horrors aboard them. The podcast covers everything from murders, rapes and suicides to generally hazardous and life-threatening malpractices and poor policies. I think the story that shocked me most--and this is due to the fact I was already expecting horror stories of murders and kidnappings and such--was the story from 1900 or so, near the beginning of the podcast, that talks about many, many passengers and others aboard a cruise ship drowning when their ship had a problem due to life jackets that were made to more efficiently drown you than save your life. The cork company in charge of making them cut corners to cut costs, and as a result, rather than a vest made of the properly sized cork portions, they gave this ship a bunch of life jackets made of portions of cork scraps held together by heavy iron bars. At least, I think i got that story right. Either way, the life jackets were heavy and did not float sufficiently enough to save anyone. Terra-da-loo! has a new favorite as of 11:44 on Aug 19, 2013 |
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2013 10:24
|
|
|
Life jacket design - and indeed most stuff about safety at sea - wasn't perfected until well after the Titanic went down. It's not perfect yet, mind you, but at least the life jackets won't kill you if they're worn properly. The life belts they had back in the day only increased your flotation with no or little regard to stability; depending on your body type and the way you wore it, it was entirely possible that you'd float head down. Heck it's still possible with a lot of recreational PFDs nowadays. I've never heard the one about iron bars in the floats though, and so I'm tempted to dismiss it as an urban legend. I'll look into it further; did the podcast mention any ship names? FrozenVent has a new favorite as of 12:11 on Aug 19, 2013 |
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2013 12:05
|
|
|
FrozenVent posted:Life jacket design - and indeed most stuff about safety at sea - wasn't perfected until well after the Titanic went down. It's not perfect yet, mind you, but at least the life jackets won't kill you if they're worn properly. It has to do with the Manhattan Harbor Cruise Ship Fire, the ship was called the PS General Slocum. According to them, the ship's captain made the tragic blunder of trying to sail to sea to put out a ship fire, and when women and children tried to escape using the life jackets, well. Edit: Here's the wiki. Terra-da-loo! has a new favorite as of 12:25 on Aug 19, 2013 |
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2013 12:16
|
|
|
Zombie Raptor posted:It has to do with the Manhattan Harbor Cruise Ship Fire, the ship was called the PS General Slocum. According to them, the ship's captain made the tragic blunder of trying to sail to sea to put out a ship fire, and when women and children tried to escape using the life jackets, well. Cool, didn't know about that one, thanks. Kind of similar to the Noronic. On the lifejacket, I'd be more suspicious of this: quote:The life preservers had been manufactured in 1891 and had hung above the deck, unprotected from the elements, for 13 years.[9] But since I don't know much about 19th century life jackets design standard, I don't know if it would have been in the manufacturer's interest to weight them down... Granulated cork sounds like a terrible idea, though.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2013 13:36
|
|
|
Well, the thing to remember is that before government regulations companies had no problem selling merchandise that could kill you, as long as there was a profit to be made.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2013 14:41
|
|
|
muscles like this? posted:Well, the thing to remember is that before government regulations companies had no problem selling merchandise that could kill you, as long as there was a profit to be made. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._H._H._Holmes Or just killing you in general.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2013 14:49
|
|
|
muscles like this? posted:Well, the thing to remember is that before government regulations companies had no problem selling merchandise that could kill you, as long as there was a profit to be made. Please, they still don't, they just have minor limitations on how obvious they can be about it now.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2013 15:29
|
|
|
Zombie Raptor posted:This I think unnerves me mostly because before all of this poo poo made the news, we had put our own address up on some ads for a yard sale and other stuff.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2013 16:00
|
|
|
^ I put my address up on Craigslist for a yard sale a few years ago. Basic stuff--I have furniture, books, and knickknacks at this address from 8AM to 1PM, please come! NEVER AGAIN. Nothing overtly creepy happened, but it was such a huge hassle. From the moment I posted the ad til literally two weeks later, I was bombarded with emails and visits, asking to either hold stuff before the yard sale or asking if I had any leftover yard sale items they could have. This continued AFTER I took the ad down! One woman came to my house a week after the sale saying she'd seen my ad and that her daughter was going through some hard times so could she please have anything from the yard sale that didn't sell and oh by the way can I look inside your house to see if you have anything else you want to give away? She asked for my couch. From now on I will advertise any future yard sales by putting up flimsy posterboard signs around the block the night before, as God intended.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2013 20:49
|
|
|
Fascinator posted:^ I put my address up on Craigslist for a yard sale a few years ago. Basic stuff--I have furniture, books, and knickknacks at this address from 8AM to 1PM, please come! Craigslist is full of fascinating, horrible cheapskates, the kind of people who will spend a lot of time and effort to get something for "free". Do you think there's enough material to warrant a "Craigslist horror stories" thread or a "stupid poo poo related to Craigslist in general" thread? The latter could also include dumb postings I guess. I'm sure there's been something like that in the past but I haven't seen one in a while and this isn't really the place for it. Probably some great stories though.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2013 23:25
|
|
|
I have a mild fascination with Len Bias. "He was selected by the Boston Celtics as the second overall pick in the 1986 NBA Draft on June 17, but died two days later from cardiac arrhythmia induced by a cocaine overdose. He is considered by some sportswriters to be one of the greatest players not to play at the professional level." There was an article once about a dude who dunked over a car and was known as a playground champion before getting arrested for drugs, which would be cool if it were true; but this is a real, honest-to-god *great* player who never "made it." Something about squandering such an incredible talent is amazing. Plus: an overdose from loving cocaine?
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2013 01:11
|
|
|
Parallel Paraplegic posted:Do you think there's enough material to warrant a "Craigslist horror stories" thread or a "stupid poo poo related to Craigslist in general" thread? The latter could also include dumb postings I guess. I'm sure there's been something like that in the past but I haven't seen one in a while and this isn't really the place for it. Probably some great stories though. Craigslist Crazies: I will pay you in human teeth, here in PYF
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2013 01:18
|
|
|
Thanks, apparently I'm an idiot who can't use the search feature properly or look at the forum itself before posting! 
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2013 02:18
|
|
|
nocal posted:I have a mild fascination with Len Bias. "He was selected by the Boston Celtics as the second overall pick in the 1986 NBA Draft on June 17, but died two days later from cardiac arrhythmia induced by a cocaine overdose. He is considered by some sportswriters to be one of the greatest players not to play at the professional level." Here's a take on Bias: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=bias It screwed up many things in ways never intended. It's been said this was what actually started the "War on Drugs".
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2013 05:46
|
|
|
Jack Gladney posted:Anyone curious about Dahmer might want to check out a comic book memoir from political cartoonist Derf Backderf (Derf is a nickname, I'm pretty sure). He's done a newspaper comic called "The City" for years, but in the '70s he went to high school with Jeffry Dahmer, and knew him as well as anyone did. It describes a guy who was always severely messed up and drunk heavily to suppress the impulse to murder, but also as someone who was regarded as a kind of eccentric mascot by most of his fellow students--kind of a joke, but also someone they'd tolerate and egg on. I actually had his principle as a professor (who was an awesome prof.). I can pretty much confirm that, one of the things he witnessed was him dropping alka-seltzer tablets in his mouth in order to pretend to be rabid in front of his "clique" at the local mall. I guess my dad also worked with someone who went to High School with him. Also, his yearbook photo is literally next to the Cleveland Brown's "Bone Lady" who you can google search. Weird poo poo.
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2013 07:25
|
|
|
nocal posted:I have a mild fascination with Len Bias. "He was selected by the Boston Celtics as the second overall pick in the 1986 NBA Draft on June 17, but died two days later from cardiac arrhythmia induced by a cocaine overdose. He is considered by some sportswriters to be one of the greatest players not to play at the professional level." I grew up in Baltimore and went to school at University of Maryland, and Len Bias is still a big thing around here, the community and the university has never fully healed from it. And yea, like the previous poster said you can make the argument that the War on Drugs started here, at least where cocaine is concerned. Up until that point cocaine was thought of by most people to be on the same level as weed or even alcohol, illegal sure, but not something really dangerous. Len Bias wasn't a habitual drug user in general, but his life's dream had just come true and he was celebrating with his college buddies. Just an unbelievable waste of a guy that, even aside from basketball, could have gone on to effect his community in so many positive ways. Edit: I know there are differing opinions about Bias' previous drug use, and he wasn't using cocaine for the first time that night. But in general it doesn't seem like the guy was a habitual user and never smoked weed or anything else as far as I know. Basebf555 has a new favorite as of 18:26 on Aug 20, 2013 |
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2013 14:44
|
|
|
Zombie Raptor posted:Also, to further illustrate the paranoia, I sometimes get concerned that even with the camera built into my laptop screen duct taped over, they could still use the mic. Now that I think of it, I could probably mute it or something and at least try that way. The internet is an incredibly untrustworthy "place." Hey, thanks for this podcast recommendation.
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2013 15:23
|
|
|
Basebf555 posted:I grew up in Baltimore and went to school at University of Maryland, and Len Bias is still a big thing around here, the community and the university has never fully healed from it. And yea, like the previous poster said you can make the argument that the War on Drugs started here, at least where cocaine is concerned. Up until that point cocaine was thought of by most people to be on the same level as weed or even alcohol, illegal sure, but not something really dangerous. Len Bias wasn't a habitual drug user in general, but his life's dream had just come true and he was celebrating with his college buddies. Just an unbelievable waste of a guy that, even aside from basketball, could have gone on to effect his community in so many positive ways. The point you bring up is a key one - coke, at least when snorted, is not *that* big of a deal (in terms of lasting harm). In reality, mild lifelong abuse doesn't produce that many ill effects. Frankly, I'd sooner expect a guy to die from drinking alcohol. And it wasn't like Reggie Lewis, who may have died from years of heavy use. There's something to it where it reminds you that anyone can die at any second. Talent, health, morality -- none of it can save you. People of all ages get aneurysms, don't they?
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2013 18:21
|
|
|
nocal posted:The point you bring up is a key one - coke, at least when snorted, is not *that* big of a deal (in terms of lasting harm). In reality, mild lifelong abuse doesn't produce that many ill effects. Frankly, I'd sooner expect a guy to die from drinking alcohol. And it wasn't like Reggie Lewis, who may have died from years of heavy use. Aneurysms, j christ does that belong on this thread. To quote fictional cartoon superspy Archer: (As he responds to acharacter what they have to do with fearful things in alligator-infested swamps) "Nothing, it can happen anywhere at anytime, that's what makes it so terrifying" My closest friend lost his younger brother to a sudden brain aneurysm when the brother was around 6 years old. Hard to think of any other disease more unnerving. Fatal familial insomnia scores highest on my list of nightmare disease, but FFI is at least extremely rare and due to its genetic nature not anything anyone can get out of the blue like an aneurysm. Falukorv has a new favorite as of 19:15 on Aug 20, 2013 |
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2013 19:10
|
|
|
nocal posted:The point you bring up is a key one - coke, at least when snorted, is not *that* big of a deal (in terms of lasting harm). In reality, mild lifelong abuse doesn't produce that many ill effects. Frankly, I'd sooner expect a guy to die from drinking alcohol. Considering habitual cocaine use is associated with necrosis of the palate and surrounding nasal tissues I'm gonna go with yes, it *is* that big of a deal. http://www.nature.com/bdj/journal/v198/n6/full/4812171a.html http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMicm066935 Note the wonderful pictures both these case reports provide as well.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2013 00:38
|
|
|
RedneckwithGuns posted:Considering habitual cocaine use is associated with necrosis of the palate and surrounding nasal tissues I'm gonna go with yes, it *is* that big of a deal. Those are two cases of pretty serious abuse. Meanwhile, David Bowie and Iggy Pop are aging gracefully. And consider that approximately 80,000 people die from alcohol overconsumption per year in the US alone.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2013 04:41
|
|
|
RedneckwithGuns posted:Considering habitual cocaine use is associated with necrosis of the palate and surrounding nasal tissues I'm gonna go with yes, it *is* that big of a deal. "A healthy 25-year-old man presented to the surgical clinic with a hole in the roof of his mouth that allowed nasal regurgitation of food when he ate." That's some party trick. 
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2013 05:30
|
|
|
nocal posted:Those are two cases of pretty serious abuse. Meanwhile, David Bowie and Iggy Pop are aging gracefully. And consider that approximately 80,000 people die from alcohol overconsumption per year in the US alone. Iggy Pop looks like one of those frozen mummies they find sometimes that are incredibly well preserved. He looks like a guy who did a shitload of drugs to me.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2013 15:24
|
|
|
nocal posted:And consider that approximately 80,000 people die from alcohol overconsumption per year in the US alone. This is flatly untrue unless you include deaths from causes not directly attributable to alcohol use, and even then I'm having a hard time seeing how you get there. For the record, deaths in the United States directly attributable to consuming alcohol, excluding unintentional injuries, homicides and vehicle impacts, fetal alcohol syndrome, and other indirect associations, numbered 25,692 in 2010. This includes 15,990 deaths from alcohol-induced liver cirrhosis. Here's the reference. (Reports and studies like that - only titled things like "Mortality of School-Aged Children in Latin America Due to Drug Consumption" - were why I had to get out of medical research for a while.)
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2013 16:11
|
|
|
How do you not include drunk driving incidents in deaths from alcohol overconsumption?
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2013 17:51
|
|
|
RCarr posted:How do you not include drunk driving incidents in deaths from alcohol overconsumption? Because its not relevant to the discussion, which was originally about Len Bias. If you want to get into all the stupid poo poo people do while on drugs and alcohol thats a whole other can of worms. We were talking about the physical toll the substance takes on ones body.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2013 18:24
|
|
|
RCarr posted:How do you not include drunk driving incidents in deaths from alcohol overconsumption? Beyond relevance to the discussion, the alcohol, while a contributing factor, isn't the underlying cause of death in a drunk-driving death. Regardless, even adding all motor-vehicle deaths to the alcohol-consumption deaths, you only get 59,379 total deaths from alcohol consumption or motor-vehicle traffic incidents in 2010, 20,000 short of the 80,000 alcohol-consumption deaths claimed above. (Same reference as before.)
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2013 19:26
|
|
|
Besesoth posted:Beyond relevance to the discussion, the alcohol, while a contributing factor, isn't the underlying cause of death in a drunk-driving death. Do you really need to be such a pedant about the exact number when his point, that alcohol is terrible for you and our drug laws are irrational and hypocritical, is still just as valid whether the number is 5,000 or 500,000? There are actually probably fewer alcohol deaths because its legal and hence regulated for things like contaminants and has a consistent and verifiable strength.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2013 19:35
|
|
|
Cocaine used in moderation is nearly harmless unless you have a preexisting condition, just like several other illegal drugs.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2013 19:52
|
|
|
mr. mephistopheles posted:Do you really need to be such a pedant about the exact number when his point, that alcohol is terrible for you and our drug laws are irrational and hypocritical, is still just as valid whether the number is 5,000 or 500,000? There are actually probably fewer alcohol deaths because its legal and hence regulated for things like contaminants and has a consistent and verifiable strength. Hi. I'm going to reveal a little bit of personal information about myself here, so bear with me. My father is an epidemiologist. He's been working for 40 years specifically on the study of drug use and abuse around the world. Right now he's one of the pre-eminent experts in the world and probably the most-cited author on the subject in the medical literature. I've been surrounded by this research since I was born. Because of him, I got into medical research; I'm not an epidemiologist or even a biostatistician, but I am an analyst of no little skill. In the course of one of my recent projects, I worked with the PACARDO study, which is a body of research collected from Panama, the Dominican Republic, and the five Spanish-heritage Central American republics (hence the name - PAnamá, CentroAmérica, y Républica DOminicana). This research collected self-reported data from adolescents aged 12-20 in those seven countries, and asked them both about their drug-use habits and their behavioral habits. (Efforts were made to keep social pressure to a minimum, so that the self-reporting wouldn't be exaggerated for purposes of bravado, "street cred", etc.) During the course of that analysis, I was seeing 12-year-olds report that they had had a daily cocaine habit for several years. I was seeing 12-year-olds report that they had had a daily cocaine habit for several years. So yes, I'm a pedant, because this is a motherfucking important subject, not Whose Line Is It Anyway, and you don't just get to make up the loving numbers.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2013 19:53
|
|
|
"Thing Y is worse" is not a counter argument to "thing X is bad."
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2013 19:57
|
|
|
Dross posted:"Thing Y is worse" is not a counter argument to "thing X is bad." What if you're comparing an argument and its opposite counter argument to one another?
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2013 19:59
|
|
|
SheepNameKiller posted:What if you're comparing an argument and its opposite counter argument to one another? That only proves that one of the two is worse than the other, not that the less bad option is in fact not bad.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2013 21:15
|
|
|
Besesoth posted:Hi. I'm going to reveal a little bit of personal information about myself here, so bear with me. Being a pedant, you should realize that you gave no actual numbers! How many 12 year olds? What effect did it have on them specifically? What percentage of those 12 years old deceloped medical problems due to their continued use? If you're going to pull out some study at least give us a link or maybe some numbers to go on.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2013 21:25
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 9, 2024 15:03 |
|
|
MadMattH posted:Being a pedant, you should realize that you gave no actual numbers! How many 12 year olds? What effect did it have on them specifically? What percentage of those 12 years old deceloped medical problems due to their continued use? If you're going to pull out some study at least give us a link or maybe some numbers to go on. I think his anectdote was just to demonstrate that this is an incredibly important topic, and it doesn't help to just throw out numbers that are more than twice what the actual statistics are. If you spent all your time doing studies of that kind of stuff, then saw people casually throwing out there that like 3X as many people are dying from alcohol than actually are, you'd probably find it hard to just let it go. These statistics are how very very important (financial) stuff is decided, the more people know about the actual stats the better.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2013 21:29
|
|