RT McMahon’s Neighborhood

Everyone was appalled when Nidal Hasan snapped and killed 13 people recently. The SMH has a piece up noting that this is not much of an aberration: "On average, guns kill or wound 276 people every day in America. Of those shot, about 75 adults and nine children die."

For whatever reason America has the highest violent crime rate in the developed world. The SMH quotes Britain's Home Office which In 2000 "published a study that compared murder rates in the world's capital cities. Canberra had 0.64 homicides per 100,000 people. London had three times that rate. Washington, DC's, murder rate was 93 times that of Canberra's". Admitedly Canberra probably doesn't have the highest crime rate in Australia, but the trend is the obvious.

Now, what America does or does not do is its own business, but there's a good tidbit of an argument against loosening Australia's gun laws. After Martin Bryant killed 35 people in 1996 John Howard instituted "one of the tightest sets of gun ownership laws in the world". The result? "Australia endured 11 mass shootings in the decade leading to the day Bryant ran amok. There have been none since."

While researching something different I came across a useful tidbit of information when considering the size of Australia's population. The most recent projection put Australia's population at 35 million by 2050, and this growth is one of the major challenges facing Australia's future.

According to the Global Footprint Network (via Wikipedia) "the total world Ecological Footprint is 2.7 global hectares per person. With a world-average biocapacity of 2.1 global hectares per person, this leads to an ecological deficit of 0.6 global hectares per person". Obviously the richer nations have a larger footprint per person than the developing nations.

Australia's figures are 7.8 global hectares per person -- unsurprisingly far higher than the average. The good news is that the "ecological remainder" is 7.6 global hectares per person -- ie the amount of Australian land we're not using. An increase in population will obviously reduce this remainder, and as has already been pointed out the world's population is already using more resources than the world can replace. The best thing Australia can do is keep its population low and reduce the number of global hectares per person the population uses.

What the hell's wrong with Lar's legs? He looks like a midget..

There's a tournament this weekend I wanted to travel to, but it seems unlikely I'll make it now with friends in tow.  My good friend Jon guesstimated it would cost about $40 per person.  So four people altogether would've ran about $160 bucks in gas for both ways? Wait, what the hell?  How does that add up?  I spent about $50 alone for my trip to Dallas, which is about equal distance...something's afoot here...

Sigh.  I seriously need a car that's well-tuned and a little bit more reliable. 

So Bakemonogatari 13 came out this week, and lo and behold the fansubbers were all over it.  Not even a day after it's online stream, people had subtitles ready to go.  Gotta love that dedication! 

I still need to get back to work on that Sket Dance translation.  Been putting it off for far too long since Tekken 6 came out...

ここ1年で日本のネット業界がどう変わったのか、「ブログ・メディア・動画界勢力図詳細」を見てみた
Curious about what Japanese people use while they surf the web?  Check out this crazy chart of user statistics -- great stuff!

トロ・ステーション：09/10/31 - 電脳御殿
Mainichi Isshou: Crazy cat game that's incredibly adorable.  Now with videos?

Eden of the East Films' New Trailer Streamed (Updated) - Anime News Network
Good stuff!

Strippers or Counter-Strike — Which Gets a Gamer's Attention?
We need more studies like this in the U.S.!

美女たちがミルクっぽい官能的なドレスを身にまとった写真集「Milk」 - GIGAZINE
Delicious.  What an excellent use of milk if I say so m'self!

Seth talks about the viability of re-releasing fighters : News : EventHubs.com
Ever wonder why your favorite 2D fighter from the last century hasn't made the cut yet on a next-gen console?  Seth Killian gives a little insight inside into what goes on behind the curtains.

4Gamer.net ― 「鉄拳6」の各要素をゲーマガ編集部が紹介。PS3版とXbox 360版のロード時間なども検証してみた（鉄拳6）
PS3 load times (installed vs uninstalled) are pretty significant.  Like 20 to 30 seconds significant.  And the Xbox360 gets the better end of the stick too!