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January 14th, 2013

The Hitler gun control lie

cognitivedissonance:

I’m sick of the gun control = Nazis argument. And here’s the historical analysis:

University of Chicago law professor Bernard Harcourt explored this myth in depth in a 2004 article published in the Fordham Law Review. As it turns out, the Weimar Republic, the German government that immediately preceded Hitler’s, actually had tougher gun laws than the Nazi regime. After its defeat in World War I, and agreeing to the harsh surrender terms laid out in the Treaty of Versailles, the German legislature in 1919 passed a law that effectively banned all private firearm possession, leading the government to confiscate guns already in circulation. In 1928, the Reichstag relaxed the regulation a bit, but put in place a strict registration regime that required citizens to acquire separate permits to own guns, sell them or carry them.

The 1938 law signed by Hitler that LaPierre mentions in his book basically does the opposite of what he says it did. “The 1938 revisions completely deregulated the acquisition and transfer of rifles and shotguns, as well as ammunition,” Harcourt wrote. Meanwhile, many more categories of people, including Nazi party members, were exempted from gun ownership regulations altogether, while the legal age of purchase was lowered from 20 to 18, and permit lengths were extended from one year to three years.

The law did prohibit Jews and other persecuted classes from owning guns, but this should not be an indictment of gun control in general. Does the fact that Nazis forced Jews into horrendous ghettos indict urban planning? Should we eliminate all police officers because the Nazis used police officers to oppress and kill the Jews? What about public works — Hitler loved public works projects? Of course not. These are merely implements that can be used for good or ill, much as gun advocates like to argue about guns themselves. If guns don’t kill people, then neither does gun control cause genocide (genocidal regimes cause genocide).

And about that quote gun advocates keep submitting to me:

Meanwhile, much of the Hitler myth is based on an infamous quote falsely attributed to the Fuhrer, which extols the virtue of gun control:

“This year will go down in history! For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration! Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead into the future!”

The quote has been widely reproduced in blog posts and opinion columns about gun control, but it’s “probably a fraud and was likely never uttered,” according to Harcourt. “This quotation, often seen without any date or citation at all, suffers from several credibility problems, the most significant of which is that the date often given [1935] has no correlation with any legislative effort by the Nazis for gun registration, nor would there have been any need for the Nazis to pass such a law, since gun registration laws passed by the Weimar government were already in effect,” researchers at the useful website GunCite note.

Besides, it cheapens a horror like the Holocaust to even suggest that a limit on certain types of weapons and/or high-capacity magazines is anything similar to what happened in Nazi Germany. Can we please have this discussion without invoking Godwin’s law? Just once?

December 6th, 2012
lamamama: “But I am very poorly today and very stupid and hate everybody and everything.” - Charles Darwin, in a letter dated October 1, 1861 [x]

lamamama:

“But I am very poorly today and very stupid and hate everybody and everything.”

- Charles Darwin, in a letter dated October 1, 1861 [x]

(via flightofthevagus)

November 1st, 2012
ninjatengu: 4000 years of medicine.  Tee hee. 

ninjatengu:

4000 years of medicine. 

Tee hee. 

August 2nd, 2012

Today in history: The first U.S. Census was conducted in 1790.

think-progress:

Population: 3,929,214.

July 30th, 2012
No longer will older Americans be denied the healing miracle of modern medicine.

President Lyndon B. Johnson on signing Medicare into law

July 30, 1965

(via think-progress)
July 17th, 2012
discoverynews: Higgs Discovery Could Lead to Mind-Bending Technologies “If you could manipulate the Higgs field locally, you’d have a great Star Trek device. You could make objects disappear. It’d be a great weapon, a great magic trick — if you could put things back together again,” Krauss told Discovery News. But how to tweak the field, believed to be responsible for giving matter its substance? keep reading

discoverynews:

Higgs Discovery Could Lead to Mind-Bending Technologies

“If you could manipulate the Higgs field locally, you’d have a great Star Trek device. You could make objects disappear. It’d be a great weapon, a great magic trick — if you could put things back together again,” Krauss told Discovery News.

But how to tweak the field, believed to be responsible for giving matter its substance?

keep reading

June 11th, 2012
rubodewig: (via Jot Down Cultural Magazine | Los hypars de Félix Candela (y II))

rubodewig:

(via Jot Down Cultural Magazine | Los hypars de Félix Candela (y II))

(via rubodewig)

June 9th, 2012
thenewenlightenmentage: Galileo Galilei: Biography, Inventions & Other Facts Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei provided a number of scientific insights that laid the foundation for future scientists. His investigation of the laws of motion and improvements on the telescope helped further the understanding of the world and universe around him. Both led him to question the current belief of the time, that all things revolved around the Earth. Here is a short biography of Galileo and the impact he had on astronomy and science in general: Galileo Inventions The Ancient Greek scientist, Aristotle, taught that heavier objects fall faster than lighter ones, a belief still held in Galileo’s lifetime. But Galileo wasn’t convinced. Experimenting with balls of different sizes and weights, he rolled them down ramps with various inclinations. His experiments revealed that all of the balls boasted the same acceleration independent of their mass. He also demonstrated that objects thrown in the air travel along a parabola. At the same time, Galileo worked with pendulums. In his life, accurate timekeeping was virtually nonexistent. Galileo observed, however, that the steady motion of a pendulum could improve this. In 1602, he determined that the time it takes a pendulum to swing back and forth does not depend on the arc of the swing. Near the end of his lifetime, Galileo designed the first pendulum clock. Galileo’s telescope Galileo is often incorrectly credited with the creation of a telescope. Instead, he significantly improved upon them. In 1609, he first learned of the existence of the spyglass, which excited him. He began to experiment with telescope-making, going so far as to grind and polish his own lenses.  His telescope allowed him to see with a magnification of eight or nine times. In comparison, spyglasses of the day only provided a magnification of three. It wasn’t long before Galileo turned his telescope heavenward. He was the first to see craters on the moon, discover sunspots, and track the phases of Venus. The rings of Saturn puzzled him, appearing as lobes and vanishing when they were edge-on - but he saw them, which was more than can be said of his contemporaries. And recent research seems to imply he discovered Neptune two centuries before it was officially known. Of all of his telescope discoveries, he is perhaps most known for his discovery of the four most massive moons of Jupiter: Io, Ganymede, Europa, and Callisto. When NASA sent a mission to Jupiter in the 1990s, it was called Galileo in honor of the famed astronomer. Copernican system In Galileo’s lifetime, all celestial bodies were thought to orbit the Earth. Supported by the Catholic Church, teaching opposite of this system was declared heresy in 1615. Galileo, however, did not agree. His research — including his observations of the phases of Venus and the fact that Jupiter boasted moons that didn’t orbit Earth — supported the Copernican system, which (correctly) stated that the Earth and other planets circle the sun. Ultimately, the four largest moons of Jupiter (the Galilean moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto) were named for him. In 1616,  he was summoned to Rome and warned not to teach or write about this controversial theory. But in 1632, believing that he could write on the subject if he treated it as a mathematical proposition, he published work on the Copernican system. He was found guilty of heresy, and was placed under house arrest for the remaining nine years of his life. Image:  Galileo Galilei is credited with discovering the first four moons of Jupiter. Credit: NASA

thenewenlightenmentage:

Galileo Galilei: Biography, Inventions & Other Facts

Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei provided a number of scientific insights that laid the foundation for future scientists. His investigation of the laws of motion and improvements on the telescope helped further the understanding of the world and universe around him. Both led him to question the current belief of the time, that all things revolved around the Earth. Here is a short biography of Galileo and the impact he had on astronomy and science in general:

Galileo Inventions

The Ancient Greek scientist, Aristotle, taught that heavier objects fall faster than lighter ones, a belief still held in Galileo’s lifetime. But Galileo wasn’t convinced. Experimenting with balls of different sizes and weights, he rolled them down ramps with various inclinations. His experiments revealed that all of the balls boasted the same acceleration independent of their mass. He also demonstrated that objects thrown in the air travel along a parabola.

At the same time, Galileo worked with pendulums. In his life, accurate timekeeping was virtually nonexistent. Galileo observed, however, that the steady motion of a pendulum could improve this. In 1602, he determined that the time it takes a pendulum to swing back and forth does not depend on the arc of the swing.

Near the end of his lifetime, Galileo designed the first pendulum clock.

Galileo’s telescope

Galileo is often incorrectly credited with the creation of a telescope. Instead, he significantly improved upon them. In 1609, he first learned of the existence of the spyglass, which excited him. He began to experiment with telescope-making, going so far as to grind and polish his own lenses.  His telescope allowed him to see with a magnification of eight or nine times. In comparison, spyglasses of the day only provided a magnification of three.

It wasn’t long before Galileo turned his telescope heavenward. He was the first to see craters on the moon, discover sunspots, and track the phases of Venus. The rings of Saturn puzzled him, appearing as lobes and vanishing when they were edge-on - but he saw them, which was more than can be said of his contemporaries. And recent research seems to imply he discovered Neptune two centuries before it was officially known.

Of all of his telescope discoveries, he is perhaps most known for his discovery of the four most massive moons of Jupiter: Io, Ganymede, Europa, and Callisto. When NASA sent a mission to Jupiter in the 1990s, it was called Galileo in honor of the famed astronomer.

Copernican system

In Galileo’s lifetime, all celestial bodies were thought to orbit the Earth. Supported by the Catholic Church, teaching opposite of this system was declared heresy in 1615.

Galileo, however, did not agree. His research — including his observations of the phases of Venus and the fact that Jupiter boasted moons that didn’t orbit Earth — supported the Copernican system, which (correctly) stated that the Earth and other planets circle the sun. Ultimately, the four largest moons of Jupiter (the Galilean moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto) were named for him.

In 1616,  he was summoned to Rome and warned not to teach or write about this controversial theory. But in 1632, believing that he could write on the subject if he treated it as a mathematical proposition, he published work on the Copernican system. He was found guilty of heresy, and was placed under house arrest for the remaining nine years of his life.

Image:  Galileo Galilei is credited with discovering the first four moons of Jupiter.
Credit: NASA

June 4th, 2012
think-progress: Women vote advocates Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

think-progress:

Women vote advocates Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

April 9th, 2012

Apr 6, 1896 - First modern Olympic Games

This day in 1896, the Olympic games are reborn in Athens 1,500 years after being banned by Roman Emperor Theodosius I. At the opening of the games, King Georgios I of Greece and a crowd of 60,000 spectators welcomed athletes from 13 nations to the international competition.