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Are you sure it's Internet fault? Young idiots did stupid stuff like this way before personal computers entered the households. Urban myths, games of daring and similar stuff always happened, it simply wasn't "news material".
From people smoking plastic to inhaling old style household products (the ones without any kind of CE approval) to jumping down from the first or second floor, parkouring across balconies, climbing over high voltage lines, playing "dodge the train at the last second", stealing from farmers (who often shot them with salt), shooting each other with slingshots, using alcohol bottles as flamethrowers, playing in abandoned and crumbling buildings... And I'm listing only things that my parents did from age 6 to 14, when Internet wasn't even a thing in my country.
GCS d-- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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How about the idiots that test bulletproof vests by having their friends shoot them?
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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Just to get a good rating on youtube ... 
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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It happened a lot even before youtube. At least now the lazy idiots first look for a video and see most of the comments. Go take a look to Darwin Awards...
GCS d-- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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My gun safety is cringing.
Still less stupid than those who try it with a knife - which has the perfect shape to tear through kevlar.
GCS d-- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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Must be the same guys who have problems with Darwin.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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Yeah, I know what you mean - but the internet lets one idiot feed a stupid idea to people all over the world in a few minutes. So instead of a couple of dozen morons eating washing liquid in a city, you get a couple of million even stupider people doing it world wide.
Now, if we had a chemical that rendered you sterile and we got eating that out as a meme ... 
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OriginalGriff wrote: So instead of a couple of dozen morons eating washing liquid in a city, you get a couple of million even stupider people doing it world wide.
I wouldn't be so sure, mostly it's the news agencies milking the phenomenon - the fact that response times are faster because it gets to public attention in days makes it less dangerous than those ages old urban legends that were alive for decades, because happened only in sporadic undocumented cases in unconnected places and then were narrated by the reliable word of mouth across several layers of people.
GCS d-- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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den2k88 wrote: I wouldn't be so sure, mostly it's the news agencies milking the phenomenon
By the time the news agencies go to it it's already a phenomenon. They may encourage a few late-comers, but by and large, stupidity can outrun them on any day.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Yes but there is a difference between seeing 5 news of the same thing happening because it has a high incidence and seeing 5 news and they were the only cases. Add the fact that the proliferation of agencies-for-peanuts (the ones that give away news for free, making money through advertisement) the same event can and will be narrated in dozens different flavours, changing places, names, ethnicities and quantities thus giving the impression that oh my dog it's an emergency please someone thinks fo the childraaa!
GCS d-- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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Yes, I'm inclined to agree. It's got all the vague phrasing of the traditional urban legend "lots of teenagers", "possible death" etc., it all seems a bit "A friend of a friend knew this kid ..." to me.
I guess the internet allows it to be augmented by videos (fake or otherwise) and allows it to spread a bit faster than stories used to but it's pretty much the same thing.
98.4% of statistics are made up on the spot.
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And then, when the worst of all this was over, we used to get a letter from the government that told us where we had to go to receive rifles and hand grenades and get some lessons on how to use them. But only for three months. After that we got to the really dangerous stuff.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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Cor!! That brings back memories of when I was a kid. Mind you, some of those things weren't even generally available when I was a kid - plastics, for instance. Most of our time was playing Cops and Robbers amongst "abandoned and crumbling buildings" or spending the whole day over the fields eating whatever berries you could find when you felt hungry and drinking whatever water was available.
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Just when you think it can't get any worse! Tide Pods really, I remember in my student days people eating dish washer tablets.
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I like sprouts.
98.4% of statistics are made up on the spot.
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Ok, they still look like something fom a 1950s sci fi movie. But I like the planet where they come from.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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What, Baby Cabbages? They good (fried with bacon and chestnuts).
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Me too!
Keep your friends close. Keep Kill your enemies closer.
The End
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Me too. I've got a recipe for roasted Brussel sprouts that's [excuse me while I wipe up drool ... there, that's better] really good (it includes bacon).
Software Zen: delete this;
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It's more complex than just that. Though to your point a lot of kids don't know what its like to work for something. It just looks like a generation lost without any goals to achieve, leaving them to play stupid games...
Common sense is admitting there is cause and effect and that you can exert some control over what you understand.
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Seems you are going against the Tide 
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I've always been the Bold sort.
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Then you need a wig
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I keep mine by the window; but only one Persil.
Gotta go - Surf's up!
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