Ars technica published a post about a hot button issue entitled "Guns at home more likely to be used stupidly than in self-defense." After a couple of dozen comments came in, the fifth-to-the-last paragraph was edited to say:
Finally, on the third page of comments, someone mentioned bananas. Redditor metageeek took a screenshot of the comments. Things got even sillier after that, with some readers mentioning bananas used as weapons, and other commenters totally confused. How about you? Do you ever comment without reading an entire post? Link -via reddit
That's the bad news. In the limited scope of the review, the primary positive effect assigned to guns is deterrence, and, more specifically, deterrence against violence. Although, "Results suggest that self-defense gun use may be the best method for preventing property loss," this doesn't count from a public health perspective. And that's only the start of the problems; as the National Academies of Science noted in a report quoted by the author, "self-defense is an ambiguous term." As Hemenway himself puts it, "Unlike deaths or woundings, where the definitions are clear and one needs to only count the bodies, what constitutes a self-defense gun use and whether it was successful may depend on who is telling the story." If you have read this far, please mention Bananas in your comment below. We're pretty sure 90% of the respondants to this story won't even read it first.
Finally, on the third page of comments, someone mentioned bananas. Redditor metageeek took a screenshot of the comments. Things got even sillier after that, with some readers mentioning bananas used as weapons, and other commenters totally confused. How about you? Do you ever comment without reading an entire post? Link -via reddit
Comments (26)
I try to learn from my mistakes.
@Splint Chesthair You don't need an ammendment for that. It's really silly and make Americans look bad. Gun laws and regulation doesn't mean you're not allowed to own a gun. It means that that crazy fucker down on the corner who has long conversations with his dog isn't allowed to own one. (Conversation, as in, the dog participates). Did you know that there are just as many guns per capita in Norway? The rules here are very strict. You have to have a hunting licence/certificate and a relatively clean record if you want to buy a rifle or a shotgun. If you want to buy a hand gun, you'd have to be an active member of a pistol shooting club for a year or two (cant remember, but at least a year), and for all guns, you need to apply to the police. Automatic weapons are illegal to own. Still, there aren't many shootings, and violent crimes aren't that common. Except for stabbings these days, and that's a whole other matter.
By the way, Neatorama may be described as somewhat liberal. I can't tell if you were serious about the "socialist fascist" comment. It's a dichotomy. You can't be a socialist, craving a classless society run by the people and at the same time strive for a society run by one tyrant and his oportunistic henchmen.
Bananas.
Are you kidding? He totally PROVED the point! Not on purpose, but still...
"Although you may find it slightly macabre / we prefer your extinction to the loss of our job."
"Tigers are great / the e-pit-o-me..." Calvin doesn't quite finish the poem there, but the word is hyphenated so you know where the syllables are, and he also ends up with "dignity" so you know what it rhymes with.
I was an adult before I found out that acacia wasn't ack-ack-eye-ah. I blame the short story "The Veldt" from 4th grade.
And I lived in England when I was in my 30's and that's when I learned to pronounce "draught".
I'm a visual learner, not an audio learner...
And I'd still rather pronounce "quixotic" as key-ho-tic, even though no one else pronounces it that way or knows what I'm talking about.
Well- ok- I avoid using 'egregious' out loud because I know it's not pronounced like I think it is but I can't ever remember just how it IS pronounced...
It LOOKS like Burl skew, right?
I get to keep my pride, because 1) echinecea does not sound like how it is spelled AT ALL, and 2) he pronounces a lot of things wrong. His parents are both native german speakers, so he learned some odd pronunciations as a child that sort of stuck...weirdly stuck.
I know how to say it and often use it in conversation but when I see it in print I always pronounce it "Aww-Ree."
Cache, whereby I added to the "Cash" a flamboyant "Ay!".
I'm sure there are dozens of others...
I pronounced it "cir.cum.fear.ance".
It was a word I knew, but had never seen printed apparently. As fate would have it, in high school english class, we were cycling through the class as we read from the text. The girl next to me had awry in the last sentence she read, and when she pronounced "uh rye", it clicked.
Had it been in the the following paragraph, it would have been read by me and I would have said aw-ree.
Recently, Boehner. I had only seen it in print and thought it was pronounced... well, you know.
"Corps" is one I got called out on in a middle school history presentation.
"Facade" was fay-kade for a long time.
"Forte" was also mispronounced for-tay, but that's mostly because people generally speak in incorrectly anyway.
'Inertia' is another one. hooked on phonics is a scam!
oh, and @julie g...i just learned how to pronounce 'Seamus' because of your comment.
I got schooled by one of our cafeteria workers over this.
It's http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=crudites
and i always read misled as my-zled.
The "jig-a-watts" pronunciation is not incorrect, though. It's just antiquated.
"Uh... I dunno. Why?" I knew something was up, but I was hoping for the best.
"You used it in your paper." She wanted to nail me for plagiarizing.
"Oh!!! A gene-ray!" My Little-Nic-self exclaims feeling much more at ease. I knew what that was! But who thought to pronounce it in such a silly French way? "Well, that's grouping of books that are the same. Like she made science fiction instead of just horror!" And I go on.
Looking back on, I suppose I should be flattered that she thought I plagiarized. Regardless, I will always remember how to say "genre."
Ennui is another good one, but I have no clever story from my youth there.
parry does not rhyme with Larry
and for Chrissy (#29): it's IN-fini-TESS-imally
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/infinitesimally
Chelation , chelating
Just about every pre-columbian meso-american culture name, e.g. Chichen Itza.
more to follow...
Super-Fluss
And it's nearly as bad when the words from German are pronounced horrendously. There's a place called Gruene in Texas, pronounced "Green". Or all those reubens, streusels etc - if the word is from German, I keep the German pronunciation for the "eu" like in heute there.
While in Dallas, she often heard radio broadcasters mention 'ver say les' ave, for 'Versailles'. Things are different in Texas.
In Italy, it's Mi-LAN. In Tennessee, it's MY-lan.
In Greece, it's ART-imus. In Kentucky, it's Ar-TEE-mus.
For years I would leave the bus mumbling "Gerta, Gerta, Grrrrrrrrr."