Comments on: Coming soon to NOVA: Mind of a Rampage Killer

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 21:48:00 +0000

How Do You Raise a Child Like Adam Lanza?

Great. Just great. Now I’ve got nuns singing that in my head.

By: kringlebertfistyebuns

kringlebertfistyebuns — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 19:18:00 +0000

I’d think that completely getting rid of firearms is only “simple” in that it’s not a complex idea. The reality of it is far from “simple,” particularly in the United States.

By: Brad Bell

Brad Bell — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 17:37:00 +0000

Wouldn’t it be a lot simpler to get rid of weapons capable of mass killings? I don’t mean to be flip, but understanding a murderous or suicidal brain is extremely dubious. It’s easier to explain the culture that makes it possible for anyone to easily get a mass killing device. Despite the claim the guns are needed to protect people from the government, the US suspended habeus corpus and no one fired a shot. I don’t have any experience with guns, but I imagine people want to keep them because they are thrilling and fun and mostly used for things other than killing people. But they aren’t actually *needed.*

It might be worth comparing the phenomenon with our experiences in the UK, as the government will soon give everyone the right to carry a small thermonuclear device. The prediction is a spurned ex-boyfriend will nuke the country within a few days, after first kicking off the wing mirrors of my car in a drunken rage because his girlfriend don’t love him no more since he didn’t stop hitting her.

By: Crashproof

Crashproof — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 15:50:00 +0000

”new theories that the most destructive rampage killers are driven most of all, not by the urge to kill, but the wish to die.” This “new” theory has been around at least in fiction for what, 150 years? The whole idea that murderers return to the scene of the crime and hope to get caught, etc.

By: yadayada

yadayada — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 15:45:00 +0000

Yeah. Shouldn’t the real question be “Should you be locked up because you’re dangerous?”

By: yadayada

yadayada — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 15:44:00 +0000

Frontline addresses the Adam Lanza story: How Do You Raise a Child Like Adam Lanza? Although a better question might be "How do you not raise a child like Adam Lanza?"

By: Blue Ninja

Blue Ninja — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 06:43:00 +0000

Yeah cause being "supervised" by the military correlates with responsible use of firearms. Right.

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 04:46:00 +0000

Adam Lanza was 20 (not a teen) at the time of the shooting.

By: novium

novium — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 01:09:00 +0000

It has seemed that they’ve started to emulate the discovery channel etc a little bit in their presentation over the last several years, unfortunately.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 00:58:00 +0000

My old roommate used to call Nova and similar shows the Bugs Eating Other Bugs Channel.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 00:50:00 +0000

Why would you frame it in terms of culpability rather than in terms of public safety? That seems very Abrahamic.

By: Sekino

Sekino — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 22:55:00 +0000

I’m having a similar issue with BBC’s Horizon. Their recent habit of having some comedian (or personality of some sort) present and narrate the show in a cheeky and cute way, having them ask wide-eyed questions to the scientists, annoys me. It’s too bad because it used to be such a fascinating show (I guess it still is compared to what’s out there).

By: theophrastvs

theophrastvs — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 22:43:00 +0000

not that that might not be a such a bad thing; but my weasel-word “unsupervised” up there was meant to allow for military and professional usage.

By: madopal

madopal — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 22:28:00 +0000

Well, there goes our military….

By: DouglasSpaulding

DouglasSpaulding — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 21:53:00 +0000

Nova “sexes” things up? I guess I should watch it more often.

By: xzzy

xzzy — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 21:47:00 +0000

I find NOVA incredibly hard to watch because there’s way too much effort going into making the show seem dramatic. I get that they’re trying to maintain interest, but it leaves me with the feeling they left out a lot of interesting science. I usually spend 30 minutes waiting for them to get to the meat of the topic before I shut it off in frustration.

Research is interesting enough on its own, quit trying to sex it up.

By: TrollyMcTrollington

TrollyMcTrollington — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 21:44:00 +0000

I guess his tour on DS9 is over.

By: unit1421

unit1421 — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 21:43:00 +0000

No to the former, and yes to the latter.

By: theophrastvs

theophrastvs — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 21:41:00 +0000

one sensible yet utterly untenable resolution: all unpopular white males ages 0-26 may not have unsupervised access to any weapon beyond a pump action BB gun.

By: mtdna

mtdna — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 21:31:00 +0000

If innate biological factors drive you to murder should you be set free because they’re not your fault, or should you be locked up because it was your responsibility to seek help?