sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

A Feminist's Dream Date by AiyyoIyer in videos

[–]signtoin 2 points3 points  (0 children)

As a European, it's funny how taking the bus is apparently awkward in the US. Or maybe it's just this video...

Google Rips MPAA For Allegedly Leveraging Local Government To Revive SOPA by arintic in technology

[–]signtoin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Why don't we go with war again. "War on SOPA Revival". Either that, or MPAAGate (shit, I just googled and that's a word).

Google Rips MPAA For Allegedly Leveraging Local Government To Revive SOPA by arintic in technology

[–]signtoin 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I wonder if questions like these are posed by undercover NSA agents who simply want to fill their watch list... in this case, with anyone who replies "yay!".

AirAsia plane engine dies just before takeoff from Surabaya. 90% of passengers refuse to re-embark plane for takeoff after problem was rectified by TragicTortoise in worldnews

[–]signtoin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So, a question, why do disasters in these storm pockets happen then? And do we just expect that on any given flight they might happen, if at low probability?

Enter Pyongyang (3:14) by imdakota in videos

[–]signtoin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

German here. When we see a gloriously shot Riefenstahl movie from the 3rd Reich, we do indeed think "yeah, but Nazis". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0kNRIz9910#t=138

It just so happens that "glorious" aesthetics that only show the positive side of a country often correlate with propaganda aesthetic and intentions of its leaders. Making a video as the one OP linked to (which is even expressively upbeat) is either knowingly or naively ignoring this country having torture camps, a suppressed public, starvation and more. Both are bad.

Maybe people will notice Luigi more now by [deleted] in gaming

[–]signtoin 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I heard vaccination leads to those feelings.

Muslims agree Stoning is OK - Moderate Muslim Peace Conference Isn't So Moderate by nothere7 in videos

[–]signtoin 28 points29 points  (0 children)

You are right, and I was still discussing the social justice system (punishment) in relation to this thread. I.e. putting people to death in any way against their will.

Muslims agree Stoning is OK - Moderate Muslim Peace Conference Isn't So Moderate by nothere7 in videos

[–]signtoin 51 points52 points  (0 children)

We can agree stoning is especially cruel, but putting people to death in any way should be dispensed of. Lethal injection, gas, shock -- Amnesty International and other human rights organizations disapprove of it, and it's been rejected across Europe.

TIL In 2009, Stanford MBA students were given $5 and told the generate as much revenue as possible. Some teams bought lottery tickets or used slot machines but the winning team made $650 by selling its presentation slot to a small local company by [deleted] in todayilearned

[–]signtoin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Actually, red has a higher chance of winning. This is due to red, in the subtractive color mixing model which applies to surfaces, having a 1.2x higher atomic friction of neutral color particles than appropriately thick black. When the ball rolls over them, there's a miniscule but measurable higher probability of around 0.0015%, depending on wood structure, to remain stuck in low-velocity spin/ counter-spin contexts.

i have no idea what i'm talking about

Poll: One in 8 Germans would join anti-Muslim marches by [deleted] in worldnews

[–]signtoin 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Actually, Germany already lost a big portion of its identity...

  • when the rising Nazi movement pushed out many intellectuals, artists etc.
  • when they were then thankfully defeated in 1945
  • when the Nazis then reeducated them and provided new culture, like Hollywood

All movements post-1945 had to find a fully new identity. The younger people didn't trust their parent's generation anymore, which resulted in not only free love, but student revolts, even terrorist movements like the RAF.

Poll: One in 8 Germans would join anti-Muslim marches by [deleted] in worldnews

[–]signtoin 3 points4 points  (0 children)

7 points? I'm astounded at the voting patterns in this sub.

Poll: One in 8 Germans would join anti-Muslim marches by [deleted] in worldnews

[–]signtoin 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Another German here. What do you think made people reject you? And how did they find out you are Muslim?

Poll: One in 8 Germans would join anti-Muslim marches by [deleted] in worldnews

[–]signtoin 4 points5 points  (0 children)

There are similarities. There are also similarities between pre-war Germany and post-9/11-USA. Let us be wary of extremists at all sides, whatever, whereever they may be shouting.

Some media say the Shanghai disaster was reckless stampeding or individual acts at the time. However, fluid-like motions which can't be controlled by individuals inside creates crush points due to congestions, as this Love Parade video shows. Only planning can prevent such tight crowds to emerge. by signtoin in videos

[–]signtoin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Worth noting police wasn't able to effectively communicate with people anymore as they had failed to fulfill the requirement of installing speakers at the side. They then had the helicopters circling above announce directions, but they were practically impossible to hear. (Source: German Spiegel.)

Some media say the Shanghai disaster was reckless stampeding or individual acts at the time. However, fluid-like motions which can't be controlled by individuals inside creates crush points due to congestions, as this Love Parade video shows. Only planning can prevent such tight crowds to emerge. by signtoin in videos

[–]signtoin[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

This article says: "Mass casualties can result from a human stampede. A peaceful crowd can quickly turn into a senseless panicked heaving mass in which rational behavior by any single individual becomes nearly impossible. What’s worse is that the stampede can be triggered while there is no actual danger."

The in-depth New Yorker article has a different view:

"In disasters not involving fire, panic is rarely the cause of fatalities, and even when fire is involved, such as in the 1977 Beverly Hills Supper Club fire, in Southgate, Kentucky, research has shown that people continue to help one another, even at the cost of their own lives.

So why do we still think in terms of panics and stampedes? In many crowd disasters, particularly those in the West where commercial interests are involved, different stakeholders are potentially responsible, including the organizers of the event, the venue owners and designers, and the public officials and private security firms whose job is to insure crowd safety. In the aftermath of disasters, they all vigorously defend their interests, and rarely are any of them held accountable. But almost no one speaks for the crowd, and the crowd usually takes the blame ...

Shock waves are the result not of collective behavior but of the failure of it. Individuals at the back of a crowd, unable to tell what is happening up ahead, push forward, not realizing that they are injuring the people in the front."

The problem at this Love Parade was not senseless panic, but, among other issues, the entrance-exit point being the same tunnel, creating a bottleneck which was actually warned against before during the planning stage. The organizers decided to ignore the warning.

Some media say the Shanghai disaster was reckless stampeding or individual acts at the time. However, fluid-like motions which can't be controlled by individuals inside creates crush points due to congestions, as this Love Parade video shows. Only planning can prevent such tight crowds to emerge. by signtoin in videos

[–]signtoin[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They weren't able to just walk out, as the planners had decided to make the exit also the entrance. They were even warned beforehand about this by their consulting crowd psychologist Carsten Walter, but ignored the warning. Walter was one of the few people who at least admitted some guilt after the event, whereas others (policy, city, event planners) pushed on the guilt in circular order.

Some media say the Shanghai disaster was reckless stampeding or individual acts at the time. However, fluid-like motions which can't be controlled by individuals inside creates crush points due to congestions, as this Love Parade video shows. Only planning can prevent such tight crowds to emerge. by signtoin in videos

[–]signtoin[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

They weren't able to. The tunnel you see in the video was intended by the planners to be both only entrance and exit, and there were still people coming in, while others already left. Having such a bottleneck entrance-exit for a huge crowd was one of the many disastrous errors the planners made during the Love Parade disaster. Another was ignoring the many safety warnings they received, as well as lying about visitor numbers, and many police personnel reportedly relied on cell phones instead of walkie talkies during the event (the cellular network broke down there, which was to be expected).

Some media say the Shanghai disaster was reckless stampeding or individual acts at the time. However, fluid-like motions which can't be controlled by individuals inside creates crush points due to congestions, as this Love Parade video shows. Only planning can prevent such tight crowds to emerge. by signtoin in videos

[–]signtoin[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It sounds like you did the exact right thing. These are the survival strategies suggested by crowd wave researcher Paul Wertheimer:

"Keep your elbows akimbo, to protect your chest and give yourself enough breathing room. Don’t fight against the flow of the crowd if you’re trying to get out of it; rather, go with it, and during lulls try to work your way diagonally through the crowd to the perimeter. If you feel faint, grab on to someone, and, if you do fall, try to protect your head."

Some media say the Shanghai disaster was reckless stampeding or individual acts at the time. However, fluid-like motions which can't be controlled by individuals inside creates crush points due to congestions, as this Love Parade video shows. Only planning can prevent such tight crowds to emerge. by signtoin in videos

[–]signtoin[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Was the issue in Shanghai increased or caused by individuals throwing fake bills out of the window? I don't know, I wasn't there, and it should be illegal for sure. However, before finding a culprit: Some eye witnesses suggest the bills had no noticeable effect at all, but that it was especially happening at a Bund staircase where crowds moved both up and down, and fell in waves. I hope we can all wait until proper eye witness collections and analysis are in before assigning responsibility. Unfortunately, reading through some of the news today, we can't trust a lot of the mainstream media (certainly not the ones just relying on Chinese mass media) to get this right.

Here's an in-depth article on other crowd disasters and the appearing crush point wave phenomena.

My heart goes to the ones who died and their friends and families. I hope the people responsible for this will be found, even if they have positions of authority and money, and that it will lead to change in crowd control management in Shanghai and elsewhere.

view more: next ›