All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

Watch: German surfer rides world record 86-foot wave in Portugal – UPI.com

Source: Watch: German surfer rides world record 86-foot wave in Portugal – UPI.com

Everyday Gun Ownership Set the Stage for the Uvalde Massacre

Guns make society worse. From a collective standpoint, they do little but beget needless violence. They are a net negative for all. In 2020, they killed 45,222 people in the United States. Most often, the person killed is the owner, either by their own hand—in 2020, the most recent year for which complete data is available, 54 percent of gun deaths were suicides—or by accident, according to the Pew Research Center. Firearms drive up the murder rate, with 79 percent of homicides involving guns, mostly handguns.

The gun-related death toll has climbed sharply in recent years, jumping 34 percent from 2019 to 2020 and a staggering 75 percent from a decade prior. The rate of gun violence has also increased, with 13.6 deaths per 100,000 people—the highest since the 1990s, though still below the historical high in the 1970s.

Guns put their owners, and their families, in danger rather than keep them safe. A landmark study on gun ownership recently found that owning one makes you less safe at home—with women at particular risk. If you own a gun, you are more than twice as likely to die from gun violence than if you do not. The gun owner is a threat not only to themself but to everyone in the household. In particular, living with a gun owner makes you more likely to be shot to death by a domestic partner, and the researchers found living in a household with guns provided zero protection from being killed at home by a stranger.

Source: Everyday Gun Ownership Set the Stage for the Uvalde Massacre

‘He said he was fine — but what else would a brother tell his sister?’ Dmytro Kozatsky, whose photos gave the world a window into Azovstal, is now in Russian captivity. His sister told Meduza his story. — Meduza

Source: ‘He said he was fine — but what else would a brother tell his sister?’ Dmytro Kozatsky, whose photos gave the world a window into Azovstal, is now in Russian captivity. His sister told Meduza his story. — Meduza

Comparing America to Israel on gun laws is dishonest – and revealing | The Times of Israel

Israelis must meet a detailed list of criteria (Hebrew link) to be allowed to own a firearm. They must ask the state for a license, are permitted only one gun at a time, and must even ask for permission to sell their gun. And the Firearms Licensing Department is no rubber stamp: Roughly 40 percent of requests are rejected.

Indeed, before even requesting a license, Israelis must meet minimum age requirements, be in good health and of sound mind, and have no criminal record, among other preconditions.

There’s more. Once they are granted the right to carry a gun, Israelis are limited to just 50 bullets in their possession at any given time. They must shoot or return old bullets before they can buy new ones, a process that can only take place at tightly regulated shooting ranges where each bullet’s sale is carefully registered. The types of guns permitted also depend on the reason for the license – i.e., a veterinarian may only purchase a gun approved by the government for the killing of animals, a hunter’s license only permits the purchase of a firearm from an approved firearms list kept by the Parks Authority, and so forth.

In other words, as the Public Security Ministry explains on its website, Israeli law “does not recognize a right to bear arms, and anyone wanting to do so must meet a number of requirements, including a justified need to carry a firearm.” There is no inkling of a belief among Israelis that citizens should be permitted to own guns as a check on government power — that is, as a limit to the sovereignty of the state expressed in its monopoly on violence.

Source: Comparing America to Israel on gun laws is dishonest – and revealing | The Times of Israel

We can Do Better Wednesdays, Editing Process: Killing My Darlings, M. Faulkner

Context, Thought, and Learning: ShiraDest Offers Project Do Better

This is a section I’d rather not remove, but probably needs to be removed, from Chapter Six:

Transportation is a matter of both sustenance and sustainability, and thus is a key component of societal infrastructure for many reasons, which must be supported robustly, through funding and through usage by all citizens. Recall that many many studies have shown the high return in later years to society on investments in human and physical infrastructure that support early development.

Transport and health care systems are critical parts of both. Since more investment in mass transit may entail less investment in car related infrastructure, it is to be reminded that true freedom is not the ability to pollute and speed at will, but the ability to have real input in where one’s tax dollars are spent, to travel peaceably and affordably across any span of continent in order to walk in clean spaces…

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Let’s save the wildlife – Fritillaria delavayi

Myrela

Fritillaria delavayi je biljka koja živi na kamenitim padinama kineske planine Hengduan. Lokalno stanovništvo godinama je iskorišćava za potrebe tradicionalne medicine, a zbog učestalog branja ova biljka počela je razvijati vlastitu samoodbranu, da bi se sakrila od ljudskih pogleda. I ruku. Počela se kamuflirati da bi imala veće šanse za preživljavanje tako što je svoju zelenu boju, kojom se isticala u kamenitom podneblju, zamijenila za sivu. Kada natjeramo jednu biljku da se, doslovno, sakriva od nas, što to govori o ljudima? Govori da svoje potrebe stavljamo ispred ostalih i da nemamo sluha za one koji se sami braniti ne mogu. Ovo je nevjerojatan slučaj, kada čovjek toliko našteti biljnom svijetu, da doslovce “pogura” nečiju evoluciju.

Izvor: (https://www.novilist.hr) – Fotografija: (https://www.sciencealert.com)

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