News

[motherhubbard]

nevermind

[Emil Miller]

It still cuts down on legally obtained firearms. Despite having a higher population than us here in Canada, and a more condensed population, we have far more shootings in the city of Toronto alone in a few months than you do in your entire country in a year. (That may be an exaggeration, but certainly not a gross one.)

We are averaging about one a week

[The Atheist]

Since the Dunblane shootings, in which 16 chidren and a teacher were killed in 1996, the UK goverment has banned all firearms ...

Shouldn't that be handguns rather than firearms?

I'd be cautious about blaming the ban as a reason to explain the increase in handgun usage - my understanding is that there's more of a knife culture than gun culture in UK right now?

Crooks will use whatever they have handy - we had a cop killed earlier this year with a CO2-powered air rifle!

[Nightshade]

Knives are restricted too now, actually. To the point wear an under 18 ( or is it 16) year old can not buy a razor.

And don't even get me started on kitchen knives.
is that one a week per city Brian, or over all?

And farmers are still allowed guns. I had this explained to me earlier in the year but I phased the main explation of the law out.

[Emil Miller]

Knives are restricted too now, actually. To the point wear an under 18 ( or is it 16) year old can not buy a razor.

And don't even get me started on kitchen knives.
is that one a week per city Brian, or over all?

And farmers are still allowed guns. I had this explained to me earlier in the year but I phased the main explation of the law out.

Farmers may be licenced to use shotguns for killing predators against their stock but my average gun use relates to human killings overall and not just gun related crimes which are very much higher.

[kilted exile]

I knew someone whose niece was killed in the dunblane tragedy.



The handgun ban though was never likely to have too much effect on incidents involving real criminals - its job was to prevent the likes of a whackjob like Thomas Hamilton (who wouldnt have likely got hold of one by underworld means) from being able to do this. Yes there are still illegal handguns and that is a further job for government/law enforcement to deal with.


Just remembered a blog I wrote elsewhere on the 10 year anniversary of dunblane:

Wow, it's been 10 years already. Most of you reading this (If any of you read this) will be thinking probably something like 10 years since what. I'll tell you what its 10 years since a mentally unstable man named Thomas Hamilton walked into a Primary School in Dunblane (Scotland) and proceeded to execute a classful of 5/6year old kids, together with their teacher with his legally owned Browning 9mm pistol. One of the kids killed was the niece of my highschool Latin teacher, we were in her class when the news broke & I can honestly say I have never seen someone so distraught in my life, and I pray I never will do in the future.
After the horrific events of that day handguns were banned in the UK, a decision which annoyed the hell out of those people who owned handguns for using at shooting ranges. 10 years on, a lot of these people still dont see the problem with owning a handgun. I am fed up hearing every March 13th that "people kill people, guns dont kill people" or the sickeningly inconsiderate "cars kill a lot more people, why not ban cars".
Either these people are being deliberately obtuse, or they are completely stupid. I'll deal with the "people kill people, guns dont kill people" comment first: Of course its people who kill people, however you give someone a .44 Magnum handgun and he'll kill a lot more people in a lot less time. An addition to this comment I have seen is the suggestion that Hamilton would have caused just as much trouble with an ordinary household hammer, which has to be the stupidest thing I've ever heard. If he had been armed with a hammer, someone may have stood a chance of disarming the crazy **** (surprised I've made it this far without swearing).
Now for the "cars kill a lot more people, why not ban cars" brigade, do I really have to do with this crap? Little explanation the majority of people killed by cars are due to accidents, not someone deliberately trying to drive into people!!!The majority of people killed by handguns however are caused by someone pointing the gun at their "target" and blowing their brains out.
Now I know a lot of innocent people have been "inconvenienced" by this but if it prevents more Dunblanes I dont give a **** how inconvenienced you are. There hasn't been a Dunblane since.

Now to a more depressing subject, those kids should be turning 15/16 and getting ready to make their mark on the world. Instead they lie in graves, while inconsiderate arseholes complain about not being able to fire projectiles at sheets of paper.

[Scheherazade]

A US company which monitors internet traffic predicts that the millionth new English word will be coined imminently.

Global Language Monitor searches for new words and once a word has been used 25,000 times, it recognises it.

By calculating that a new word is created in English every 98 minutes, it estimates that the millionth word will be recognised at 1022 GMT.

However, traditional dictionary makers are casting doubt on the claim and the methods behind it.

GLM, based in Texas, makes its money telling organisations how often they are mentioned in new media, such as the internet.

What they can also do is search for newly coined words.

Once a word has been used 25,000 times on social networking sites and such like, GLM declares it be a new word.

Landmark doubted

However, lexicographers - dictionary professionals - doubt the GLM claim.
Dictionaries have tighter criteria about what constitutes a new word - for example, it has to be used over a certain period of time.

Lexicographers say the exact size of the English vocabulary is impossible to quantify, but if every technical term or obscure specialist word is accepted then we are already beyond one million.

And if the inclusion of specialist slang is restricted, then there are possibly three quarters of a million words in English.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8092549.stm

[The Atheist]

Once a word has been used 25,000 times on social networking sites and such like, GLM declares it be a new word.

So, lulz, lmao, rofl, lol, imho and other acronyms are now words.

I demand that ziggiferlt be included in the English language.

Please join me in getting the 25,000 necessary social site uses of the word.

A ziggiferlt is a person who does ziggifering.

[Jozanny]

700, 000 excluding certain technical terms seems a bit low to me Sche, especially with the internet explosion, which started roughly around 94 or so. I base this on the fact that in the early 90's, I was still working, but did not get online access myself until 97.

Email and blog entered common usage fairly quicky, though text shorthand is another issue, and not so much about new words as it is new code. I believe I heard on public radio that English passed the one million mark about a year and a half back.

Of more interest to me is the ability of English to continue to serve as a linga franca, which gained currency because of Britain and then the rise of the United States as the last two world powers. The British Empire ended, at least, de facto, in 1945, and the U.S., whether one sides with declinists or not, is showing cracks in the facade. Yet it would seem English will remain international for some time, unless someone knows something I don't.

An average speaker generally employs about 20,000 words, with the most common usage being "you know". Even very literate speakers say "You know" frequently. Some of us on Lit Net probably have a higher usage than 20k.

[Mr Endon]

So "bahahahahahahaha" (35,700 hits) and "zxcvbnm" (297,000) are words, apparently. I'll try to use these in my next conversation, then.

And this just in,

Time to PANIC .

[Scheherazade]

700, 000 excluding certain technical terms seems a bit low to me Sche, especially with the internet explosion, which started roughly around 94 or so.

I am just the messenger!

A ziggiferlt is a person who does ziggifering.

That is such a ziggifertish comment!

Are you one of those we have ziggifertilised or one of those we could not ziggifertilise?

*grins ziggerfeltishly*

[kilted exile]

any ideas how many times we are short to make litnet the millionth word?

[The Atheist]

any ideas how many times we are short to make litnet the millionth word?

24,996 after I've ziggerferlted Scheherazade!

[1n50mn14]

We are averaging about one a week

From what I picked up watching ten minutes of the news the other week, there were three shootings and two stabbings in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) in a week. Pathetic.

[Scheherazade]

24,996 after I've ziggerferlted Scheherazade!

Not in a million ziggerferlts!