StumbleUpon | ajanelle's blog posts

http://ajanelle.stumbleupon.com/review/30378056/

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 09:45:57 -0800

I'm going to uninstall SU for an undecided amount of time. (Maybe 24 hours, maybe months) I'm needing to concentrate on something else right now and the draw here is too great. Hopefully I won't be gone long- and I think it will be a healthy separation ;)

http://ajanelle.stumbleupon.com/review/25550526/

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:23:20 -0700

Today I'm going to be editing my interests. I'm temporarily removing all things political. I wonder if changing my SU settings will even help.

http://ajanelle.stumbleupon.com/review/17129298/

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 12:40:44 -0800

My "interests" certainly doesn't list porn, my preferences are set to R-rated. I've got some random people on my fan list with "adult" pages, but I have not friended them and they don't show up on my page.

Yet, over the last couple of days, I've been getting stumbles labled porn. This was fine until today. The sites were discussions, very interesting blogs on feminism...

Today, while laying on a couch in the student lounge with my back to- oh...- everybody else, I hit the stumble button and what should I be sent, but a page full of squatting NAKED blond women. Obviously I clicked off of it too fast to see if it was coming from somebody on my list. I just can't imagine any other reason I would have gotten it.

Aaarrrgh, will I soon have to give up on SU, too?!?! This isn't the first time it's happened, but it is the first time it's been inconvenient.

http://ajanelle.stumbleupon.com/review/15343321/

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 16:09:10 -0800

Heehee, I've turned into a baby!!! This is my neice, Jasmyne. She is the daughter of my best friend- so basically, she would have been my neice either way- and my step brother. I didn't get many pictures, living that whole 90 miles away and all, but this is a pretty accurate representation with the tongue out =P

http://ajanelle.stumbleupon.com/review/15005022/

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 15:47:28 -0800

Goin home... no internet, be back Monday. Later!!

http://ajanelle.stumbleupon.com/review/14751397/

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 18:19:34 -0800

Part 2

According to the "Population Reference Bureau" (another who knows) http://www.prb.org/Articles/2006/ElderlyWhiteMenAfflictedbyHighSuicideRates.aspx the suicide rate is 26.1% for white males between the ages of 45-64, raising to 37.5% for those between 75-84.

There is a good chance that those extremely high numbers bring the veteran suicide statistics right into the normal range- and possibly below, I'm no statistician, I don't know.

It is--interesting--when such factors are not considered. Especially in news reporting. Anybody remember the 10's of thousands of people who died in New Orleans during Katrina? I certainly remember the newscasters very quickly forgetting about them. Katrina was tragic without sensationalization. So is suicide.

http://ajanelle.stumbleupon.com/review/14751382/

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 18:18:57 -0800

Suicide is sad. There is really no other way to put it. It is devastating to think that some people reach the point where they feel their lives are so miserable that they cannot continue living. I've been very close to that point many times and feel horrible for people in that situation and for the families of those who go through with it. It may or may not be the case that military service and/or war, particularly unpopular war, has caused veterans within the last few years to kill themselves- who would not have otherwise. In fact, I would bet that some are much more inclined to commit suicide after military service, and particularly wartime service. It only seems the natural conclusion.

However, it is not appropriate to blindly accept somebody's product because they appeal to the emotional aspects of the issue of suicide and an unpopular war. The CBS news report is a product. The numbers are reported in a way that sells the story. The data was collected regarding military veterans- those who have "gotten out" to include all of the much older veterans. Older Americans have a significantly higher rate of suicide than the general population, as do males.

Pulling information semi-randomly off the internet leads to a wholly different analysis of the data:

According to the US census of 2000 about 12.7% of the US population was comprised of military veterans. http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/c2kbr-22.pdf. Of course, this number may or may not be correct, there is no way to really tell. You will have to rely on your view of the US Government and its ability to provide accurate census data.

According to "suicidology.org", which has a focus on suicide prevention so the accuracy there is also open for interpretation, there were 89 suicides per day in 2004 (sure, different years, but the CBS study spanned 12) with a suicide rate/100,000 or 11.1% for the general population and 17.7, almost 18% for males. The 2000 percentage of female military veterans was 6%.

According to the Census statistics, about 55% of these 2000 veterans were unemployed. And a huge majority had served prior to 1980. A very large number of these veterans are--older. It can probably fairly be assumed that a significant majority of these veterans were also white. The suicide rate as reported by the above source, is listed at 20% for white males.

The data collected by CBS would indicate that 19% of suicides (assuming 17/day) in the United States in 2004 (89/day average) were committed by veterans. Considering veterans made up roughly 13% of the population in 2000 with percentages varying over the 12 years evaluated, 19% would seem kind of high.

One could also factor in the 10% of states not reporting. Adding 10% to the number of suicides, at another 1.7/day brings the number to 21%. Bigger difference still. Unfortunately, an additional 10% is highly unlikely to be an accurate correction for the non-reporting states. The difference in this number would be huge when considering factors such as which specific states did not answer the requests. The difference in population between California and Wyoming is--pretty large. Over a 7000% difference.

A CBS report http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/13/cbsnews_investigates/main3496471.shtml states that the 120/week figures were from 2005. It doesn't enumerate the overall findings so relying on their calculations (again, who knows...) the suicide rate among veterans in their study was between 18.7 and 20.8 per 100,000.

The 2004 data reported the general percentage for males at almost 18% (but, of course, not all veterans are male)...
The 2004 data reported the suicide rate for white males at 20% (again, not all veterans are white males naturally)...
According to the "Population Reference Bureau" (another who knows) http://www.prb.org/Articles/2006/ElderlyWhiteMenAfflictedbyHighSuicideRates.aspx the suicide rate is 26.1%-- and still too long