Your favorite statistics and bits of trivia

[AG31]

Legal defensive gun use exceeds the number of gun related crimes in the US.

Really? Link?

 

[AG31]

Timezones my friend, timezones!
There are 24 timezones around the world (more or less there are some special cases but they are supposed to be 15 degrees each.

Yeah, I know it has to do with time zones, but I can't figure out how a whole extra 24 hours stays within the 24 hours of a day.

 

[SmilingLez]

The average person will spend about six months of their life waiting for red lights to turn green?

 

[StillStunned]

Yeah, I know it has to do with time zones, but I can't figure out how a whole extra 24 hours stays within the 24 hours of a day.

The last time zone is 24 hours behind the earliest. So by the time the new date begins in the last time zone, it will already be 24 hours old in the earliest zone, with 24 hours still to come in the last one.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Really? Link?

Yes, really.
https://americangunfacts.com/guns-used-in-self-defense-stats/

 

[NotWise]

Yes, really.
https://americangunfacts.com/guns-used-in-self-defense-stats/

The number of crimes committed with a firearm is a relatively hard statistic. The number of times a firearm is used in defense isn't a hard statistic. It depends on what you think of as "using" a gun. Personally, I think any time someone carries their firearm they're using their firearm. And then there's the question of whether they needed to use the gun at all. The numbers are all self-reported, and the whole issue is politically charged.

This 2024 study by RAND concluded that concealed-carry of firearms for personal safety may increase the rates of violent crime, rather than deter it.

 

[Comshaw]

Something I find fascinating is that the US had a syphilis epidemic in the late 19th century and early 20th century, comparable in severity to the AIDS epidemic.
View attachment 2561174

For the longest time, I had no idea that the US had had a syphilis epidemic. I've read a lot of history and historical novels, and it was something that was never mentioned. I only found out about it because one day I stumbled across a reference to a syphilis asylum where people with tertiary stage syphilis were locked up due to their erratic behavior and terrifying mental decline.

I read something yesterday that implied that the US also had a Gonorrhea epidemic in the same time frame.


It's really easy to believe that people in the US in the 1800's and 1900's rarely had sex outside of marriage because that's how those times are presented to us. But the evidence about STD's tells a very different story.

Bonus unmentioned fact - the US gave its troops condoms like they were candy, and it still struggled with a high rate of STD's. The answer to "What'd you do in the war, Dad?" is "A lot of fucking".

Syphilis is a nasty disease. In Vietnam there were rumors of the "Black Syph" which was supposed to be incurable or at a minimum drug resistant. It still isn't clear to me if it was real or if it was a rumor started by the brass to keep the soldiers away from the prostitutes.

The interesting thing about your chart is this: https://www.archives.gov/atlanta/highlights/tuskegee

While the syphilis cases were falling the government in its infinite wisdom decided to let some of those (black men all) with it go untreated and die so they could experiment.

U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) Untreated Syphilis Study at Tuskegee​

The USPHS Untreated Syphilis Study at Tuskegee began in 1929 as a cooperative study involving the USPHS, the Julius Rosenwald Fund, and state and local health departments in six southern states. During the study, a number of Black men in Tuskegee (Macon County), AL, with syphilis were left untreated, but were observed, studied, and compared to a control group which did not have the disease. The study continued until the 1970s when its existence was revealed to the public, resulting in Department of Health Education and Welfare and Congressional hearings on the ethics of medical experiments on human subjects.

Comshaw

 

[TheLobster]

The last time zone is 24 hours behind the earliest. So by the time the new date begins in the last time zone, it will already be 24 hours old in the earliest zone, with 24 hours still to come in the last one.

In other words, when Monday ends in American Samoa, just a few hundred miles away on Kiribati it’s not Tuesday that begins but Wednesday.

Timezones are weird.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Yeah, I know it has to do with time zones, but I can't figure out how a whole extra 24 hours stays within the 24 hours of a day.

Kiribati's Line Islands are in the UTC+14 zone. Iceland (along with many other places) is in UTC+0. Baker and Howland Islands are in UTC-12.

The first place in the world to see January 1, 2026 is the Line Islands; the calendar ticks over at midnight.

Fourteen hours later, January 1 begins in Iceland. (By now it's 2 pm in the Line Islands.)

Twelve hours after that, January 1 begins in Baker and Howland. (By now it's midday Jan 1 in Iceland, and 2 am Jan 2nd in the Line Islands.)

January 1 then runs for 24 hours in Baker and Howland.

Adding those together, there are 50 hours of January 1 somewhere in the world. Same goes for any other date of interest. (If anybody was wondering, looks like none of the UTC+14 or UTC-12 places do summer time.)

 

[ThatNewGuy]

Legal defensive gun use exceeds the number of gun related crimes in the US.

Really? Link?

Yes, really.
https://americangunfacts.com/guns-used-in-self-defense-stats/

It's worth noting that estimates vary widely depending on data source.

I believe the link @Kelliezgirl provides uses a 2021 National Firearms Survey to estimate that guns are used 1.67 million times per year in self defense in the United States.

Estimates that use the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), such as this 2024 American Journal of Public Health piece, arrive at a much lower number of around 65,000 incidents of guns being used in self-defense per year.

Not trying to derail things into a separate discussion. Just wanted to point out that statistics around this topic are a subject of debate.

 

[Comshaw]

James Garfield could write Greek with the left hand and Latin with the right simultaneously.

Tests conducted by St. Lawrence University in New York found that there were more left-handed people with IQs over 140 than right-handed people.

Dragonflies are such efficient hunters that they have a 95% success rate in killing their prey. In comparison, Tigers have a hunting success rate of no more than 50%.

Comshaw

 

[sister jenny]

The earliest use of the word cunt was in the year 1230 in Oxford, UK. They had a street named Gropecunt Lane. It was named that since it was the street where you went for a prostitute.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

It's worth noting that estimates vary widely depending on data source.

I believe the link @Kelliezgirl provides uses a 2021 National Firearms Survey to estimate that guns are used 1.67 million times per year in self defense in the United States.

Estimates that use the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), such as this 2024 American Journal of Public Health piece, arrive at a much lower number of around 65,000 incidents of guns being used in self-defense per year.

Not trying to derail things into a separate discussion. Just wanted to point out that statistics around this topic are a subject of debate.

The NCVS only counts instances where a police report was filed, among other things.

 

[AG31]

Kiribati's Line Islands are in the UTC+14 zone. Iceland (along with many other places) is in UTC+0. Baker and Howland Islands are in UTC-12.

The first place in the world to see January 1, 2026 is the Line Islands; the calendar ticks over at midnight.

Fourteen hours later, January 1 begins in Iceland. (By now it's 2 pm in the Line Islands.)

Twelve hours after that, January 1 begins in Baker and Howland. (By now it's midday Jan 1 in Iceland, and 2 am Jan 2nd in the Line Islands.)

January 1 then runs for 24 hours in Baker and Howland.

Adding those together, there are 50 hours of January 1 somewhere in the world. Same goes for any other date of interest. (If anybody was wondering, looks like none of the UTC+14 or UTC-12 places do summer time.)

Thanks so much! What do the letters UTC stand for?

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Abraham Lincoln said it was even higher than that.

Yeah, her saw it on the internet...

 

[munch2much]

The earliest use of the word cunt was in the year 1230 in Oxford, UK. They had a street named Gropecunt Lane. It was named that since it was the street where you went for a prostitute.

There are quite a few street names like this apparently

 

[SkyBubble]

If you have a gun in your home, it's significantly more likely to be used against you or your family than to be used for your defense.

I don't think that's actually correct.

 

[SkyBubble]

Legal defensive gun use exceeds the number of gun related crimes in the US.

That's why they want gun bans.

 

[SkyBubble]

My wife is part of the problem. There are at least two cups of half-consumed tea at any given time in our household.

Mine had a bad habit of buying frozen vegetables, using half the bag, and buying the same vegetable the following week.

 

[SkyBubble]

Yeah, I know it has to do with time zones, but I can't figure out how a whole extra 24 hours stays within the 24 hours of a day.

The "earliest" time zone is UTC+14 (Kiribati, etc.) The "latest" is UTC-12 (the uninhabited US territories of Baker and Howland Islands, for example.) So when it's midnight August 30 in Kiribati, it's 10 AM August 29 on Baker Island. By the time it gets to be August 30 on Baker Island, it's almost September 1 in Kiribati.

 

[NotWise]

I don't think that's actually correct.

From The National Institute of Health

Conclusions: Guns kept in homes are more likely to be involved in a fatal or nonfatal accidental shooting, criminal assault, or suicide attempt than to be used to injure or kill in self-defense.

There are other sources and other studies.

 

[NotWise]

I'm sorry, but NIH isn't the best source for that.

I can keep doing this if you want, but I don't care to feed your need.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

From The National Institute of Health



There are other sources and other studies.

There are other sources and studies that refute it.

 

[SimonDoom]

From The National Institute of Health



There are other sources and other studies.

The value of the findings is questionable, even if you accept the findings.

First of all, that study is based on actual shootings, rather than all "uses" of a gun in self defense. There may be cases where a gun is brandished in self-defense and gets the "job done" but isn't counted for purposes of this study. We can't tell, from this study.

Second, it is based on "shootings in or around a residence." That doesn't mean "shootings by the person who bought the gun and kept it at his home." It could also mean shootings by the intruder. If so, that undermines the conclusion that people draw from these studies, which is "if you buy a gun and keep it at home, it increases the chance you'll get injured." It may simply mean that if an intruder with a gun breaks into your home, he's more likely to shoot you than you are to shoot him, but it doesn't necessarily mean that having a gun doesn't improve your chances.

Third, it incorporates, and is substantially based on, suicides. So, while it MIGHT be true that there will be more deaths in the aggregate if we let everybody buy guns and take them home, because of the high incidence of suicide, that's not going to be very persuasive to the person who thinks to himself, "I'm not suicidal and I know how to be a responsible gun owner." It raises the question whether and to what degree the freedom and choices of responsible people should be limited by the fact that some are not responsible when making the same kinds of choices.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

From The National Institute of Health



There are other sources and other studies.

You said this in your original post:

If you have a gun in your home, it's significantly more likely to be used against you or your family than to be used for your defense.


That ISN'T what the NIH study said.

Which was:

Conclusions: Guns kept in homes are more likely to be involved in a fatal or nonfatal accidental shooting, criminal assault, or suicide attempt than to be used to injure or kill in self-defense.


These are very different things.