The Off Topic Topic

[Savonarola]

Zeit Online runs an article about the Syrian regime torturing and killing up to 11,000 insurgents.

90% of the comments below are variations of "Why are we calling them out when the West (USA/UK) aren't any better", "There should be interventions to stop the crimes in Syria and the US", "Do the photos match the other fake evidence against the Assad regime?"

And a comment pointing out that this article sources The Guardian which also ran the first articles about the NSA surveillance programs is answered with, "And? I'm just using critical thinking! P.S.: USA worse than Syria!"

From the CNN.com comments on a similar story I learned that the United States and NATO are trying to oust Assad in order to contain the Russians; a war is being planned by the 1% in order to steal the Syrian's oil; Israel (who controls the media) is attempting to manipulate the United States into military action; Saudi Arabia (despite not controlling the media) is trying to do the same; and that the United States ended a century of peace in Syria by giving arms to the Syrian jihadists in order to destabilize the Middle East, but now America is having second thoughts because we've been too successful.

Sometimes you even come up with a gem like this:

John  suddam • 6 hours ago −
There a reason why all people, and all cultures have "blamed the jews." If the entire world has a problem with jews, then it is highly unlikely that everyone else is the problem.

Yeah... that must be it.

[Josephus]

Only in (ice) hockey can you lose every game and still get 84 points

That is a fairly recent developement and it was done to combat the tradition of going turtle and paying for ties in overtime.  Seems to work.

But this is just the NHL.

They could have avoided that by having...um....ties. No overtime. 1 point each.

[Caliga]

Do you possess a Bachelor's degree or certification in:

We don't have an applicant tracking system and I've been mightily resisting talk from HR about implementing one.

"Since you people can't even use Excel correctly, I'm not sure that giving you a system that you insist on administering yourselves is the best plan."

[Sheilbh]

I think the retardation of the people posting the comments to news articles is a worldwide phenomenon, it's just that people are being retarded about different things.  Here in US, if there is an article about Putin, for example, he would be compared favorably to Obama, who of course is tirelessly trying to impose a Marxist dictatorship.  It seems like these comments sections attract the most outspoken of idiots, as well as reinforce their stupid views.  This is probably one of the modern phenomena were humanity took a step backwards by trying to take a step forward.

Yep. Online commentators terrify me, but you do get a different flavour in the Guardian, the Telegraph, the Spectator and the Daily Mail. I mean I saw a comment on an article in the Telegraph about the EU that said UKIP faced the same problems as other groups that try and fight for the people - like Assad's Syria and Golden Dawn

The only universal is people moaning that an article was written at all

[Grey Fox]

Only in (ice) hockey can you lose every game and still get 84 points

That is a fairly recent developement and it was done to combat the tradition of going turtle and paying for ties in overtime.  Seems to work.

But this is just the NHL.

They could have avoided that by having...um....ties. No overtime. 1 point each.

But Basketball doesn't have ties therefore Hockey can't have ties because the casual fan won't understand.

[Josquius]

I think I'm going to gain a fair bit of weight in my new place.
Gone is the constant climbing of stairs and long  walks to train stations. Instead I am 50 metres away from a 24 hour convenience store...

[Caliga]

 

[DGuller]

I'm starting to think that Michael Schumacher is going to be a vegetable for the rest of his life, which would be quite an inglorious way to go out for the richest athlete in the world.

[Grey Fox]

It's a foregone conclusion.

[Valmy]

They could have avoided that by having...um....ties. No overtime. 1 point each.

Then people would turtle and play for getting that one point.  Besides the whole problem is ties.  How would having ties avoid the problem of ties?

[Valmy]

But Basketball doesn't have ties therefore Hockey can't have ties because the casual fan won't understand.

Oh they understand: ties are lame as hell.  Nothing hard to understand there.

[DGuller]

It's a foregone conclusion.

Not yet, people have recovered after being in a coma for months, but obviously the odds are getting longer and longer.

[alfred russel]

I'm starting to think that Michael Schumacher is going to be a vegetable for the rest of his life, which would be quite an inglorious way to go out for the richest athlete in the world.

Not only has he been in a vegetative state for over 3 weeks, he has been showing early vegetative signs during interviews for years. 

[Grey Fox]

The odds were always low. If we rounded down, it's 0.

[DGuller]

The odds were always low. If we rounded down, it's 0.

I don't think they were that low, this was certainly no Natasha Richardson case, Schumacher practically slid right into the operating table of France's best neurosurgeons.  People survive some pretty serious closed head injuries all the time without having that kind of prompt and highly qualified care, so you would think that Schumacher's odds would be better than average.