General Discussion Thread

[the-pi-guy]

Watching Bleach and my hulu data gets corrupted.  

[7H3]

Watching Bleach and my hulu data gets corrupted.  

it was probably the hallows!

[the-pi-guy]

it was probably the hallows!

Spent like 35 min, and only managed to watch about 10 min. I've never had anything like it.

[Dr. Pezus]

The reality of this information, is that America is massive.  Many parts are amazing, and some parts are beyond awful.  
The equivalency would be saying Europe has a problem because random other country is a bit worse than other areas.  I'm not going to Iceland because this random other country has issues.  
Overall on average, the US is much worse than Europe in some of these issues, but the reality is that America is no where near as bad as things are often proclaimed.  

The vast majority of Americans don't go through life worrying about getting shot.  
Lot of low income areas, and some areas like that, that have a disproportionate amount of crime, but the vast majority of people do not live in those areas.  
There are likely areas in the US that are safer than the vast majority of Europe, just like there are likely areas that are only slightly safer than some parts of Africa.  
The US is gigantic.  My moderately small sized state is still much bigger than Iceland, close to double.  There's a ton of variance with people, where they come from, their attitudes, etc.  

Alright. So some states in the US have even more massive problems with guns (although I've seen reports from all kinds of states) while others are closer to the Western "norm". That doesn't mean we can eliminate those states, they are still a part of the US and something that the government has to worry about.

[Legend]

Alright. So some states in the US have even more massive problems with guns (although I've seen reports from all kinds of states) while others are closer to the Western "norm". That doesn't mean we can eliminate those states, they are still a part of the US and something that the government has to worry about.

It's not state vs state, but county vs county. The place I live in Colorado is well in line with most European countries. Meanwhile Denver county has averaged 5 gun homicides per 100,000 over the past 11 years. It's not the access to guns, but the poverty and gang type violence. There are countless neighborhoods where gun shots are heard throughout the day. I've had friends who grew up in those places and have seen people murdered on multiple occasions.

It's horrible and most definitely something the government has to take care of, but it has very little to do with gun laws.

[Dr. Pezus]

Persistent cannabis users show neuropsychological decline from childhood to midlife

For some reason Icelandic media decided to report on this now, 3 years after it was published. Still is interesting

[the-pi-guy]

It's not state vs state, but county vs county. The place I live in Colorado is well in line with most European countries. Meanwhile Denver county has averaged 5 gun homicides per 100,000 over the past 11 years. It's not the access to guns, but the poverty and gang type violence. There are countless neighborhoods where gun shots are heard throughout the day. I've had friends who grew up in those places and have seen people murdered on multiple occasions.

It's horrible and most definitely something the government has to take care of, but it has very little to do with gun laws.

I am liking this post because I agree with it.  Exactly what I was thinking but neglected to say.  
Not because I like it. Just sad stuff.  

[Cute Pikachu]

My town hasnt see gun violence in 8 years(heck my state and general outside of 1 little area) has not a lot of gun violence.
Mostly wreckless driving.
Oh and heroine lots of heroine.

[the-pi-guy]

In my opinion the areas that are the worst, are the least likely to be affected by stricter gun laws.  
These areas will find guns illegally if they have to, (and in some areas those guns are probably already illegally obtained anyway).  If you look at drugs, there's some pretty strict laws on that already.  Doesn't really stop much. Might even make it worse in some areas, as kids often want to be rebellious.  

[Cute Pikachu]

Did Prohibition work?
Hell no!
Will this work
Hell no!
Prohibition gave rise to friken organized crime in America.
You want to deal with that again?

[Legend]

Persistent cannabis users show neuropsychological decline from childhood to midlife

For some reason Icelandic media decided to report on this now, 3 years after it was published. Still is interesting

You're the doctor here so does this study show the drug directly causes this, or is the drug just making people less likely to push and exercise their brains?

My town hasnt see gun violence in 8 years(heck my state and general outside of 1 little area) has not a lot of gun violence.
Mostly wreckless driving.
Oh and heroine lots of heroine.

My town has hardly any day to day violence, but sadly this area has had a lot of tragedies. The Columbine school shooting happened here, same with the Aurora theater shooting, and a less publicised school shooting two years ago.

We have marijuana, lots and lots and lots of marijuana.

[Cute Pikachu]

You're the doctor here so does this study show the drug directly causes this, or is the drug just making people less likely to push and exercise their brains?
My town has hardly any day to day violence, but sadly this area has had a lot of tragedies. The Columbine school shooting happened here, same with the Aurora theater shooting, and a less publicised school shooting two years ago.

We have marijuana, lots and lots and lots of marijuana.

Colorado: marijuana
Kentucky: heroine and some weird drug that makes you think your a super hero or something.

[Dr. Pezus]

You're the doctor here so does this study show the drug directly causes this, or is the drug just making people less likely to push and exercise their brains?

"Neuropsychological testing was conducted at age 13 y, before initiation of cannabis use, and again at age 38 y, after a pattern of persistent cannabis use had developed. Persistent cannabis use was associated with neuropsychological decline broadly across domains of functioning, even after controlling for years of education. Informants also reported noticing more cognitive problems for persistent cannabis users. Impairment was concentrated among adolescent-onset cannabis users, with more persistent use associated with greater decline. Further, cessation of cannabis use did not fully restore neuropsychological functioning among adolescent-onset cannabis users."

Well, this study doesn't tell us which it is but it shouldn't really matter if the drug is directly causing it or if it's causing "laziness" because the end result is the same. They do control for years of education though. ("Third, we tested the "education" hypothesis that persistent cannabis users experience neuropsychological decline simply because they have eschewed academics and other opportunities for learning. Recent evidence suggests that staying in school can boost one's intelligence quotient (IQ) (22), and cannabis users tend to receive less schooling than nonusers (23). Therefore, we tested whether the association between persistent cannabis use and neuropsychological decline remained after controlling for years of education. "

"Is Impairment Apparent Even After Controlling for Years of Education?
The linear effect of persistent cannabis dependence on change in full-scale IQ was significant before controlling for years of education (t = −4.45, P < 0.0001; Table 2, top row) and remained significant after controlling for years of education (t = −3.41, P = 0.0007). Moreover, although fewer persistent cannabis users pursued education after high school (χ2 = 63.94, P < 0.0001), among the subset with a high-school education or less, persistent cannabis users experienced greater IQ decline")

Note that they only noticed this if use was started in adolescence.

[Dr. Pezus]

July violence: 45 murders in 31 days - Baltimore Sun

now this city has a huge problem...

[Mmm_fish_tacos]

July violence: 45 murders in 31 days - Baltimore Sun

now this city has a huge problem...

Yeah, such a shame too because Baltimore use to be a really nice place and have some of the best seafood in the world.