Interesting Links for 14-08-2013

[andrewducker]

• Dear Daughter: I Hope You Have Awesome Sex.
  (tags: sex children parenting )
• 4 Sisters Photographed Every Year For 36 Years
  (tags: photos age )
• Google Maps Easter Egg Lets You Explore The TARDIS
  (tags: google maps drwho )
• The NHS - a stunningly cost effective supplier of high quality healthcare
  (tags: uk nhs viaJohnCoxon healthcare )
• Employer

Comments

On Guns in the US - or the UK equilvalent.

[danieldwilliam]

I find the way USians view guns difficult to understand. The trade of theoretical liberty against actual deaths doesn’t seem like a good deal to me. I wonder every time I see a statistic about gun deaths in the US why they seem to have the balance between gun ownership and not being shot so out.

I think my question for myself today is - what is it about our own culture in the UK that looks really, really dumb to other cultures but which we are just unable to see?

[simont]

The trade of theoretical liberty against actual deaths doesn’t seem like a good deal to me.

I idly wonder if Franklin's principle has conditioned a large number of Americans against even trying to assess any question quantitatively based on results, as soon as they realise it can be framed as liberty vs safety.

(Granted, Franklin's actual statement contained some weasel words which more or less boil down to 'well yes but don't go way over the top when applying this', but those tend to get forgotten when it's requoted...)

[danieldwilliam]

That might well be it.

It’s a very quotable quote.

Re: On Guns in the US - or the UK equilvalent.

[naath]

Americans often seem baffled by the NHS...

Re: On Guns in the US - or the UK equilvalent.

[cartesiandaemon]

True, but this time we're right :)

Re: On Guns in the US - or the UK equilvalent.

[danieldwilliam]

Yeah, but that feels somewhat different to me. Perhaps it’s because I’m British and therefore mentally inside NHS space but I don’t see the two as quite on a par