[Flipside]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=&e=6&u=/ap/20040520/ap_on_hi_te/terror_database_4

< Oracle > I sense.....a darkness coming < /Oracle >

[Rictor]

Before helping to launch the criminal information project known as Matrix, a database contractor gave U.S. and Florida authorities the names of 120,000 people who showed a statistical likelihood of being terrorists — sparking some investigations and arrests

Unbelievable. I await the formation of the PreCrime Division.

[Flipside]

It would be interesting to see the statistics of how many of those arrests were actually for Terrorist related items, or simply poor schmucks who live in a violent or deprived neighborhood and were doing weed etc?

[Moonsword]

Welcome to the U.S.  Please surrender your rights at the border.

Good God.  I'm in favor of law enforcement having the tools it needs, but this is ridiculous.  Arrests and investigations should be made based on evidence and solid reasoning, not because someone in a dark room generates a 'statistical possibility' of them being a criminal.  I've had a stat course, you don't want to know how easy it would be to make an error in something like that, miss a variable, ignore a minor but crucial number...

This is ridiculous.

[J3Vr6]

The scoring incorporated such factors as age, gender, ethnicity, credit history, "investigational data," information about pilot and driver licenses, and connections to "dirty" addresses known to have been used by other suspects

So make sure you pay your credit cards on time and pay your parking tickets!

[01010]

I'm a white male, 18-30, clean driving license (i.e NO driving license), clean credit history, no criminal record. This affects me in no way, yet it is still ****ing scary. I'm all for computers being used to help law enforcement, but to use statistics instead of rationality, reasoning and evidence is absurd.

[Flipside]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040520/hl_afp/us_health_homosexuals_040520172443

And so it continues.....

And Wow! Those must be really anonymous, why is it, when over 75% of the people who have Aids are Heterosexual, when the safest group is gay women, do people insist on assuming that HIV is a 'Gay' disease. It's that blind ignorance that allowed it to become the problem it is.

[Jiggyhound]

mmmmmmm, soon, soon....

ARMED REBELLION!

[Jetmech Jr.]

Some people are just plain stupid, Flip...

These people, in particular:

"This new rule was developed with input from many concerned consumers, associations and tissue establishments."

[Jiggyhound]

heh

[01010]

Originally posted by Flipside
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040520/hl_afp/us_health_homosexuals_040520172443

And so it continues.....

And Wow! Those must be really anonymous, why is it, when over 75% of the people who have Aids are Heterosexual, when the safest group is gay women, do people insist on assuming that HIV is a 'Gay' disease. It's that blind ignorance that allowed it to become the problem it is.

****ing hell. I was trying to think of something to reply with but you pretty much summed it all up.

I don't understand for the life of me how individual people could really have problems with someone purely on something they do in private let along a ****ing government.

I'm just glad I'm apathetic to pretty much everything. It's the way to be.

[karajorma]

This new rule was developed with input from many concerned consumers

Refering to a woman who uses a sperm bank as a consumer is just plain wrong

[Jetmech Jr.]

thats kinda nasty, but still...so...funny!

[ZylonBane]

Originally posted by Flipside
why is it, when over 75% of the people who have Aids are Heterosexual, when the safest group is gay women, do people insist on assuming that HIV is a 'Gay' disease.

Funny how in a thread about statistics (sort of), you make such a classic statistical blunder. Assuming that the 75% figure you cite is correct, you ignore the fact that the heterosexual population is massively larger than the homosexual population. Consider that such a small population can nonetheless account for 25% of all AIDS cases, and maybe you'll understand why it's still associated with the gay lifestyle.

But how about some real numbers, courtesy of the Centers for Disease Control--

As of the end of 2003:
* Of new infections among men in the United States, CDC estimates that approximately 60 percent of men were infected through homosexual sex, 25 percent through injection drug use, and 15 percent through heterosexual sex.

[Flipside]

That's the States, now look at Africa, and yes, the statistics were utterly guessed, theres probably a far far higher percentage of heterosexual cases.

Edit : Oh, and Estimates are like guesses with a seal of approval Considering where the seal of approval comes from, I wouldn't count too much on Estimates.

[ZylonBane]

Originally posted by Flipside
That's the States, now look at Africa

Why? Is AIDS known as "the gay disease" in Africa too?

[Flipside]

Apparently so....

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/democrat/news/opinion/3675191.htm

[Knight Templar]

This country is beggining to really scare me...

[jdjtcagle]

Try living in it

[Knight Templar]

....... I do.