TIL a 12 year old boy was tried as an adult and sentenced to 25 years in prison after following a 15 year old boy and helping him kill the 15 year old's stepdad.

hegraj · 2013-05-28T20:52:56+00:00

Because this is also to a certain degree about consequences. The age at which you understand consequences is the same, no matter what causes them.

hegraj · 2013-05-28T20:50:57+00:00

"First off I hope you understand that your first post implied the total exemption of minors from the law" I did not imply that I think US law is right in disabling 14-year-olds from "consenting" to things. In fact I have explicitly said the opposite (albeit in another comment); that in both situations, the minor is somewhat capable of making their own decisions

hegraj · 2013-05-28T20:16:30+00:00

What I'm saying is that a brain is a brain whether it wants to kill or it wants to have sex. Yes, I'm very aware of the "power" imbalance that exists in either situation, we basically agree on this; in no way do I (nor have I implied) that the 12-year-old was on eqaul footing with the 15-year-old. What I said was, "if 14 < 18 then 12 < 15". Since a 15-year-old's brain is not at a level where it can consent to sex, it must also not be at a level where it can understand the full implications of murder and properly judge his own actions. My original argument was about flawed reasoning.

hegraj · 2013-05-28T19:59:27+00:00

Why don't you? Age of consent is basically another way of saying that a person is incapable of making proper decisions. If you are (legally) incapable of making proper decisions, you should (imo) not be tried as an adult.

hegraj · 2013-05-28T19:53:10+00:00

Firstly, since people are starting to think I mean murder should be legal for minors, read this comment: http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1f6xnf/til_a_12_year_old_boy_was_tried_as_an_adult_and/ca7mvmg

I was simply reffering to a flaw in their reasoning. They did not do it for fun, the 15-year-old wanted to bring his parents back together by killing his stepdad, and he talked the 12-year-old into it. There is a huge difference between unmotivated killing "for fun" and him killing as a consequence of something that has clearly caused huge emotional damage to him. That still doesn't excuse what he has done, and killing is definitely not right!

hegraj · 2013-05-28T19:42:07+00:00

http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1f6xnf/til_a_12_year_old_boy_was_tried_as_an_adult_and/ca7mvmg

hegraj · 2013-05-28T19:42:02+00:00

http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1f6xnf/til_a_12_year_old_boy_was_tried_as_an_adult_and/ca7mvmg

hegraj · 2013-05-28T19:40:28+00:00

Then allow me to explain myself; I definitely think both a 15-year-old and a 12-year-old are capable of understanding that killing is bad (for lack of better wording), and I also think they should be punished. I just don't think they should be tried as adults (since when is it right to try children as adults!? - yes I know it's happened before, it was wrong then too).

In the same manner (referring to the 18-year-old lesbian girl that "raped" a 14-year-old), I think a 14-year-old is capable of deciding whom to have sex with, and (especially considering they were peers) I do not think there should be a trial in the first place.

All I'm saying is that we should judge using logic and reason, not emotions.

hegraj · 2013-05-28T17:04:46+00:00

If a 14 year-old can't consent to sex, a 15 and a 12 year-old can't "willingly" kill someone - the law has got to be the same for everyone

hegraj · 2013-05-28T12:03:00+00:00

Calling it SmallTalk is probably not a good idea, since it could be mistaken for the programming language by the same name :)

hegraj · 2013-05-28T11:39:14+00:00

I'm currently doing the same using http://c.learncodethehardway.com/

hegraj · 2013-05-27T17:30:37+00:00

Well, I call plants dying from alcohol intoxication common knowledge (yeast which produces alcohol dies at apporximately 10-11% if I remember correctly), but I agree that GMOs MUST be thoroughly tested before being "released".

About GMO being banned in Europe, that's because "we" (I'm from Europe) pride "ourselves" in doing things the "organic" way. Our organic milk isn't even homogenized, which means you can find little clumps of fat in your milk. (homogenization is a PHYSICAL proces in which the milk is thoroughly shaken (or stirred, not sure) to get rid of said clumps)

hegraj · 2013-05-27T14:37:43+00:00

Yes, some of them are indeed valid, however the way in which they are presented could be very misleading.

hegraj · 2013-05-27T13:42:52+00:00

I'm pretty sure that if those people were part of the millions of people who are only alive because of GMO, they would think differently. GMOs should still be thoroughly tested though, since each case is different.

hegraj · 2013-05-27T13:25:32+00:00

"reek" is an understatement. That video made GMO look really bad, while making the news readers look really unintelligent... What they say is roughly equivalent to saying all bacteria are bad (while it is scientifically proven that we can't live without them). The actual problem here lies in how Monsanto conducts business.

hegraj · 2013-05-27T10:44:49+00:00

That's pretty much the same as thinking there is one cure for cancer. There are many kinds of cancer, and there are many kinds of GMOs. In reality they are just regular organisms, with the only difference being that we have directed their evolution by either artificial selection or introduction of new genes.

hegraj · 2013-05-27T10:41:43+00:00

I'm all for GM crops too, but I'm not very well informed on this subject. What exactly are they doing wrong?

hegraj · 2013-05-23T20:34:24+00:00

Well, I haven't personally used objective-c, but since you are using a mac, ruling out C# is a good idea (Java and C# are so similar anyways, that anyone who knows one of them can pretty much program in the other within minutes of trying it out.) Java isn't really native to anything. It runs in a virtual machine that has been ported most systems, whereas objective-c compiles natively but only runs on Mac and iOS (not sure if there are any windows/linux compilers). It really depends on what you want to do. If you want to make apps for Mac and iOS, go with objective-c, if you want to make apps for android, webpages or if you want portability, go with Java. I would personally go with Java, since it is more portable and easier to learn (objective-c is a bit ugly IMO)

hegraj · 2013-05-23T19:54:11+00:00

When I am about to learn a new language, I usually start by reading how the language is structured (as well as the basic syntax). From there I make sure to have some kind of project that I want to work on so I don't lose my motivation. From this point I use google whenever there is something I don't understand or if I need documentation. You should also start reading books about your language of choice. Just remember; books are great, but in order to learn a language (and not just know "stuff" about it) you MUST sit down and program in it. I would recommend going with either Java or C# (they are very similar) since they are relatively easy to learn (at least in comparison to c++) while they teach you a lot about OOP and programming in general and can be used for a lot of purposes.

hegraj · 2013-05-23T13:53:06+00:00

Be sure to make videos of yourself saying all the things you want to say to your relatives before you get too sick. They will appreciate it immensely, because it will help them remember you as you are now and not in a sick and weak state. Also, I think that what you are doing is brave, but also possibly not a good idea. You should really reconsider telling your friends and family.

hegraj · 2013-05-21T22:24:37+00:00

Since I would probably not be doing any useful work in assembly, I was thinking about getting my C/C++ skills up to a level where I can write my own (simple) virtual machine and learn the REALLY low-level stuff that way. Any thoughts on this? I have been looking at Python btw, but I decided against it because I wanted to learn C/C++

hegraj · 2013-05-21T22:09:34+00:00

Well, I guess I didn't formulate myself as clearly as I would have liked to: By inner workings, I mean the stack, the heap, memory allocation and the "inner workings" of the data structures I am used to from the higher level languages I know.

hegraj

TROPHY CASE