4 ms·

Pretty sure if the baby of a famous couple was kidnapped today, it would make headlines, and if there were ongoing elements it would be a recurring story for ye

Pretty sure if the baby of a famous couple was kidnapped today, it would make headlines, and if there were ongoing elements it would be a recurring story for years. And random violent acts do often lead to reform. At the same time, evidence shows better status and education yields fewer births. You take your gloomy point too far.

lutusp 13y ago
> Pretty sure if the baby of a famous couple was kidnapped today, it would make headlines ... The modern equivalent would be the kidnapping of a celebrity's child, by a stranger, for money. Such things happen every day now, but they don't become the focus of the world's attention. The Lindbergh kidnapping tells us something about the nature of the world before modern times. > And random violent acts do often lead to reform. Are you serious? Here is a list of school shootings from colonial times to the present: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_shootings_in_the_United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_shootings_in_the... The trend is obvious -- there's nothing resembling reform, and as time passes, the body counts keep going up. Why? The population has become too dense to meaningfully prevent instances of mass death by wacko. This problem can only get worse as population density increases. > At the same time, evidence shows better status and education yields fewer births. That's very true, there's no dispute about that. But because of natural selection, the low-birth-rate educated are replaced by the high-birth-rate uneducated, which changes nothing. Those who think that's too gloomy need only read the history of efforts to control bacterial resistance to antibiotics -- we know why this happens, and we have teams of scientists addressing the issue, but we don't seem to be able to do anything about it: http://mrsa-research-center.bsd.uchicago.edu/timeline.html http://mrsa-research-center.bsd.uchicago.edu/timeline.html > You take your gloomy point too far. Do you think I take this too far? Wait until you see what nature does with it.
- jezebel6 13y ago
  >The modern equivalent would be the kidnapping of a celebrity's child, by a stranger, for money. Such things happen every day now... Really? Give one example.
  - lutusp 13y ago
    >> The modern equivalent would be the kidnapping of a celebrity's child, by a stranger, for money. Such things happen every day now. > Really? Give one example. How about scores, even if we limit ourselves to a short interval of time (2000-2009): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_kidnappings#2000-2009 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_kidnappings#2000-2009 And remember, even though the cases number in the scores on this list, these are only the high-profile cases that saw news coverage for more than a few hours. Many more didn't make the list because the circumstances were't remarkable enough.
    - jezebel6 13y ago
      Well, no. That is a list of famous kidnappings, but I was asking for proof that children of celebrities are kidnapped on a regular basis. There's a difference.

lutusp 13y ago

> Pretty sure if the baby of a famous couple was kidnapped today, it would make headlines ... The modern equivalent would be the kidnapping of a celebrity's child, by a stranger, for money. Such things happen every day now, but they don't become the focus of the world's attention. The Lindbergh kidnapping tells us something about the nature of the world before modern times. > And random violent acts do often lead to reform. Are you serious? Here is a list of school shootings from colonial times to the present: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_shootings_in_the_United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_shootings_in_the... The trend is obvious -- there's nothing resembling reform, and as time passes, the body counts keep going up. Why? The population has become too dense to meaningfully prevent instances of mass death by wacko. This problem can only get worse as population density increases. > At the same time, evidence shows better status and education yields fewer births. That's very true, there's no dispute about that. But because of natural selection, the low-birth-rate educated are replaced by the high-birth-rate uneducated, which changes nothing. Those who think that's too gloomy need only read the history of efforts to control bacterial resistance to antibiotics -- we know why this happens, and we have teams of scientists addressing the issue, but we don't seem to be able to do anything about it: http://mrsa-research-center.bsd.uchicago.edu/timeline.html http://mrsa-research-center.bsd.uchicago.edu/timeline.html > You take your gloomy point too far. Do you think I take this too far? Wait until you see what nature does with it.

jezebel6 13y ago
>The modern equivalent would be the kidnapping of a celebrity's child, by a stranger, for money. Such things happen every day now... Really? Give one example.
- lutusp 13y ago
  >> The modern equivalent would be the kidnapping of a celebrity's child, by a stranger, for money. Such things happen every day now. > Really? Give one example. How about scores, even if we limit ourselves to a short interval of time (2000-2009): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_kidnappings#2000-2009 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_kidnappings#2000-2009 And remember, even though the cases number in the scores on this list, these are only the high-profile cases that saw news coverage for more than a few hours. Many more didn't make the list because the circumstances were't remarkable enough.
  - jezebel6 13y ago
    Well, no. That is a list of famous kidnappings, but I was asking for proof that children of celebrities are kidnapped on a regular basis. There's a difference.