Interesting Links for 18-04-2013

[andrewducker]

• New Zealand legalises same-sex marriage
  (tags: newzealand marriage lgbt )
• David Cameron can, as usual, fuck right off.
  (tags: davidcameron margaretthatcher )
• Viewing a web page is not breach of copyright (Good to have that confirmed)
  (tags: law uk web copyright )
• How Pixar Used Moore's Law to Predict the Future
  (tags: thefuture computers pixar )

Comments

[del_c]

A lot of the things Americans say they don't have in America, they do. They just blank them out. I got into an argument many years ago with someone who was Wrong On The Internet about the uiquely non-violent American sports culture, so I gathered news reports from one year of US basketball riots: cities set on fire, running battles with the police. All local reports, because unlike in the UK, they don't get reported in the big outlets where they can be seen by anyone who doesn't live in that city, or in another country.

The Internet arguer just shrugged my references off. Not denying them, just completely pretending I didn't post, and carried on posting about the "soccer" violence. That was when I first realised facts didn't matter in Internet arguments. But tip for whenever you run across the subject: don't let them compare only British football with American football. Ask them about the basketball.

I once heard a radio report from an American correspondent live from a scene of basketball violence, and the reporter calling them, quote, "like Briddish soccer hooligans, with guns and machetes!" Two things, one, guns and machetes aren't like British football hooligans, that's much worse, and two, the reporter herself, though a journalist, apparently sincerely believed this was a unique event, because she herself didn't know about them happening elsewhere in the US.

[bart_calendar]

Yeah, we even have violence at American Football matches. A few years back there was a Jets game right after a snowstorm and people actually started attacking the players with sharp icicles.

And the last time the Mets won the World Series the fans literally tore Shea Stadium apart, stealing everything from the seats to the grass on the field.

And before any American football match you'll find drunk fans fighting with each other in the parking lot.

And, when Army plays Navy, holy shit can that be a disaster in the making, because you know 50,000 drunk veterans of opposing teams in the stands is not good. Same thing when the New York Giants play the New York Jets.