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Blame Ronald McDonald.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/246239/cultural_body_size_trend_japanese_women.html?cat=69

Cultural Body Size Trend: Japanese Women Getting Curvier

Japanese women aren't usually known for being curvy. The typical Japanese woman in most of our imaginations is stick thin and completely flat with no curves. The only option was for plastic surgery which is very common even for girls as young as twelve. They would get breast enhancements called 'gummi bears.'

But recently more and more younger women are popping out with the natural "bon-kyu-bon" look meaning big breast, small waist and big hips. Now retailers in all major shopping districts rush to replace their clothing to fit a new generation of curvier women.

Not so long ago most Japanese stores didn't even stock large sizes but recently more women have been complaining that the sizes in local stores are too small for them. This has made a big change in the clothing industry of Japan. Juicy Couture, known for its figure-hugging terrycloth tracksuits, opened one of its biggest stores in Tokyo last year. Tokyo's high-end Isetan department store, which used to relegate its bigger sizes to one corner, now prominently features larger items from designers such as Ralph Lauren, Diane von Furstenberg and DKNY.

Before, the bras were the padded types. Now the best-sellers that are new to Japan are called "Love Bras," they show cleavage with less padding, meant for curvier women in their 20s.

This could be good news for most Americans who often go to Japan. Before it was almost impossible to find sizes that fit westernized bodies but now bigger sizes are showing up in stores for people to buy.

In the media more bustier women are popping out too. Before it was all about the cute and innocent look but recently pop stars such as Koda Kumi have been keep up with their fans and the other young adults by wearing sexy metallic bras and not much else.

How do Japanese women physically differ than before? Today, the average Japanese woman's hips, at 35 inches, are around an inch wider than those of women a generation older. Women in their 20s wear a bra at least two sizes larger than that of their mothers. Waist size, meanwhile, has gotten slightly smaller, accentuating many young women's curves. The average 20-year-old is also nearly three inches taller than she was fifty years ago, according to government statistics, and the average foot has grown by nearly a quarter of an inch.

Nutritionist point to the change in diet of women today. Before meals consisted of mostly fish and tofu but these days Japanese women are exposed to westernized foods consisting of red meat and dairy. All this extra protein and calcium has led to longer, stronger and fuller bodies. According to doctors the intake of extra fat tends to go to either breasts or hips in adolescent girls.

If a character set from the 60's is the only legacy standard we carry forwards in programming, we're doing pretty good. Look at how axle length of Roman chariots has dominated transportation systems -- http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/390903/how_the_romans_influenced_the_space.html

and promoting eugenics, by which he says we should get the population down to 1 million people. not to include his own relatives or offspring, of course.

Without any references, I had to go find some myself.

I can't find anything that says what you are saying. I can find a lot of people pointing out that he's promoting eugenics, and citing a speech. But I didn't interpret the speech anything like your interpretation.

For the record (you can watch the YouTube Propaganda link above, for his actual words), he said something like:

First we got population. The world today has 6.8 billion people. That's headed up to about 9 billion. Now if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we lower that by perhaps 10 or 15 percent.

I interpret this that we will experience in 3rd world countries what we have experienced in 1st world countries - that people will have less babies, if infant mortality goes down. And it will result in a population that's less than our current projections.

I am not a big Bill Gates supporter. But I think that the leap that he's promoting eugenics (based on my limited research is just plain silly and paranoid.

Send me better links. I want to be informed!

I really like the Google bookmark service.

https://www.google.com/bookmarks/l

Uses labels like gmail, and has browser addons.

FF:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2888/

It is built into chrome

Safari:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/901411/goggles_use_google_bookmarks_with_safari.html?cat=15

Initial interest confusion is very, very, minimal when it comes to the internet. It takes what? 10 seconds to determine that VideoPod is not an iPod video online.

Top hit for "VideoPod" on Google:
"Apple's New Video Pod".

Apparently it only takes 10 seconds if you already know that the VideoPod isn't an iPod. Someone who doesn't know would easily be confused.

Blockbuster should have been sued not for trademark infringement but for false advertising, it shouldn't make a difference -what- it was that Blockbuster was advertising, if it doesn't exist and they didn't have good faith to believe it existed (for example, a billboard still advertising a store that had gone out of business but the billboard was put up before the store was closed) should be charged with fraud and misleading advertisement rather than anything to do with trademark infringement.

"Charged with"? This isn't criminal - using that term makes you sound like you have no idea what you're discussing.

But you really don't have any idea what you're discussing: who has standing to bring a claim for false advertising? The consumer. Who has standing to bring a claim for trademark infringement? The trademark owner. That's why the suit was trademark infringement, not false advertising.

The thing is, VideoPod didn't advertise to be like an iPod video, they simply have similar names.

Go look at the trademark act and tell me where trademark infringement requires an advertising campaign for the infringer that's similar to one used on the registered product.

That is the only similarity. VideoPod isn't packaged like an iPod video, VideoPod doesn't make commercials that look like Apple's commercials, VideoPod isn't made by a company with a name similar to Apple's, etc.

It's branded as a "personal cinema". That's quite similar to the way Apple has marked the iPod as a personal media player.

The idea that initial interest confusion can occur without misleading advertisements is laughable

It's the law. Perhaps you should read the decisions that discuss this and refute them, rather than merely saying "it's laughable". "It's laughable" is a conclusion, not an argument. Where's your argument?

if you search for VideoPod online,

See above - first hit on Google for "VideoPod" is the iPod.

or ask someone to see a VideoPod and they show you it, it takes all of 2 seconds to determine it is not an iPod video.

Consumers aren't required to personally examine the product. In fact, that's the point of trademarks - by associating a product with a known manufacturer, a consumer can make assumptions about the product's quality, sight unseen. This increases market efficiency.

Trademark law should be about protecting consumers not about letting corporations be dicks to people with vaguely similar names.

It is about protecting customers. In this case, it's protecting customers who hear "Video Pod" and think "iPod for Video? New widescreen iPod? iPod with a built-in pico-projector?" Etc.

Their iPod is their only "Pod" thing so saying someone is trying to create confusion by calling a projector a "Video Pod" is a real stretch.

Let's see - iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano, iPod Classic, iPod Touch. Only the iPod Shuffle and the iPod Nano currently qualify as "mp3 players". The other two are most definitely also video players, and one of them also happens to be a handheld computer. I don't think it's necessarily unreasonable to consider the possibility that the Video Pod somewhat dilutes the iPod brand, particularly for those members of the general population on the left hand side of the bell curve. The Video Pod's name is close enough to Apple's brand that it can very likely benefit from a halo effect of the popularity of the iPod brand. Whether or not that's enough for Apple to be (legally) in the right I can't say.

As an aside, I googled "video pod" sans quotes, just to see exactly what the "infringing" device was (I can't tell if it's intended as a portable video projector, or what) and I stumbled upon this link from 2005 explicitly referring to the then newly released (fifth generation) iPod as the "Video Pod," (though this site is clear to point out that iPod Video was never it's official name, and I'm pretty sure that "Video Pod" wasn't either, though the first link shows a fairly clear example of an argument to be made in favor of brand dilution in this particular case).

Designed to be paired with a webcam or other sensor system, the concept is that the computer is able to detect where a user is in proximity to the display along with an idea of roughly what he or she might be doing

FEATURE REQUEST: Retreating keyboard and mouse
PROBLEM: Users who pick their nose and then try to use your keyboard or mouse
LEVEL: Urgent
REPEATABILITY: Way too often, especially around flu season!
PROPOSED SOLUTION(S): When the OS detects a luser digging for "nose gold", both the keyboard and mouse should immediately retract. Failing that, the computer should copy their personal info (not yours) to the system clipboard and then do a redirect to a Final Measure site so as to play "Hey everybody, I'm looking at gay porno" loudly until the luser withdraws from the scene.
ASSIGNED TO: Anyone who doesn't have/want a keyboard stained with "crunchies."
NOTES: I don't care that there are studies claiming that engaging in automucophagy is healthy - it's disgusting. etc, etc, what was this woman thinking?.

One of these days, someone's going to end up in the ER with their finger jammed through their brain at 200 mph when their air-bag goes off. Do you really want to explain why you look like this guy?

God you're a dumbass. There isn't a single true statement in your entire post.

Hmmm...

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5699214/rebuilding_of_st_nicholas_greek_orthodox.html?cat=9

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/08/18/leaders-disappointed-government-declares-deal-rebuild-ground-zero-church-dead/

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/24/nyregion/24greek.html

Here, have some facts. Thanks.

Western world: "I may disagree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
Islamic world: "Die for insulting our moon god!"

Christian world: "Die for insulting our sky god!"

"When Mighty Mouse falls victim of cocaine, the Devil's talcum powder, when directors with Mafia-sounding names make films about Jesus hanging out with whores just a stone's throw from that wholesome Universal Studios family tour, it is time for action. Unfortunately, conventional protests such as picketing and telephoned bomb threats do not seem to be working" Episcopal Bishop Paul Moore, New York

“Neither the label ‘fiction’ nor the First Amendment gives Universal the right to libel, slander and ridicule the most central figure in world history.” - Jerry Falwell

"Following the boycott and protests against The Last Temptation of Christ, no Hollywood movie studio has seriously considered making a film that challenges the gospel story of Jesus." - The Long Term Effects on Censorship as a Result of the Protest Against the Last Temptation of Christ

Does this kind of thing still happen in the Christian world? Hmm... Playboy in Portugal shut down for its ‘blasphemous’ Jesus photoshoot

Good luck with that. You can't even find his UN email address. At least I couldn't find any contact info on this guy after a few minutes of Google. I did find out that he got one of his degrees from a university in the USSR and that he's from Mali. After this year's world cup referee fiasco, I am beginning to think that this is some sort of Malian plot to screw the 1st World... And wouldn't you know? My tinfoil hat went missing last night, too...

...he mistook them for car thieves and got out his gun. One dead cop later and the guy gets charged with murder.

And rightly so. With no clear threat to his safety, his gun should've stayed holstered. In most jurisdictions defense of property cannot legally include deadly force. One glaring exception is Texas.

Many of these protections are already in place in the US and Europe is just catching up. For example, US employers have been limited for years in how they can use social networking sites, based on existing US non-discrimination and privacy laws. Many of those restrictions in the US are based on case law; they don't require separate legislation.

Yeah, nobody in the US was ever fired for posting stuff on social networking sites like facebook

RFID is attackable. Just swipe a little reader over some guy's ass when he isn't looking, or play like Chris Paget and add a little power. Pipe the card's output through a register with the amount you want to take as a "purchase" parameter, and the person won't have any clue their wallet was picked until they get their bank statement or a transaction is declined, whichever comes first.

Lifelock's practice of renewing fraud alerts on your credit profile was ruled illegal by a federal judge last year.

Their CEO had his identity stolen too.

Personally I find those services to be a waste of money. Make use of your right to a free credit report from each bureau per year, if you suspect something has happened you can place the fraud alert yourself and get access to your report then.

Hmmm... Just when there seems to be hope for the dying bees, they have corporations to fear...

That's a rather materialistic view on "the good life".What happened to the value of singing, dancing, telling stories, eating food you enjoyed, having free time, not having someone bossing you around, time for communion with nature and the infinite, doing comprehensible work you enjoyed doing at your own pace, having time to raise children, and so on? The Sahlins article shows how most hunter/gatherers most of the time had no want for food. Would you trade, say, having time for singing and dancing and friendships for some hot water? You can always put hot rocks in a basket of water if you want hot water. And while you don't have hot water on tap, you also don't have property taxes to pay or dioxin in the food supply to digest.

Also, you've overgeneralized the point. There is a big difference between saying there were a lot of good things about a period in human history and saying *everything* about that period was wonderful or that we should just abandon other aspects of our current lives that we enjoy. But clearly, these game developers are not enjoying their lives. So, something is wrong. Looking to the past helps give us some perspective on that.

By the way, life expectancy after age five in hunter/gatherers may have been comparable to today. It is only in the last 100 years that human skeletons are now as tall as they were 10,000 years in the past (because agriculture was a big step backward nutritionally and culturally):
http://press.princeton.edu/titles/6812.html

Some things like sewage treatment are only needed because of high population densities today.

Many people don't have access to medical care, and even when they do, the for-profit medical system harms them compared to simpler approaches (whole foods diet, fasting, sunlight, meditation, good sleep, etc.). Many chronic disease today are caused by eating poorly or not getting enough sunlight (cancer, diabetes, heart disease, mental illness, depression, influenza, autism, etc.)
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/treatment.shtml
http://www.alternativeratreatments.com/eat-to-live.html
so it is not completely clear how much happier most people are now compared to people 10,000 years ago.

Also people back then did not know what was possible, so someone from now sent back to those times might feel different than people did who grew up then.

And young children in the USA spend more than a decade in prison, so that can't be happy for them compared to back then either:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2445404/the_war_on_kids_a_polemic_against_public.html?cat=9

So, sure, there are some good things about today (the internet overall seems to be a wonderful thing). But there is plenty of bad too, so the equation of how different times stack up is not so simple.

A little bit on what America was like before Columbus (describing Haiti):
http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/zinncol1.html
"""
"They ... brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks' bells. They willingly traded everything they owned... . They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features.... They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane... . They would make fine servants.... With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want." ... The Indians, Columbus reported, "are so naive and so free with their possessions that no one who

Has everyone completely lost their value of history in this 'throwaway' culture?

Other people are making lamphades from vintage sheet music.

Citation provided Conspiracy law is pretty standard fare.

How do you kill that which is already dead?

Since we are dealing with bloodsucking parasite combined with rotting corpse and SEC/IRS/legal system failed to do the right thing, we could try several options.

• silver bullets
• wooden stake in his heart
• expose it to the sun. Ask NASA or Russians to send it to the Sun just to be sure

There are ten other ways of dealing with rotting corpse.

Bullshit. The Dreamcast was the last Sega console because of a number of missteps by the company, and because developers were scared of it turning into a SegaCD or 32x or Saturn, so didn't want to commit the resources to developing titles. It had nothing to do with piracy.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1572800/why_the_dreamcast_failed.html

A 5 speed 95 saturn wagon can carry 5 adult and luggage, and get 32mpg combined (i own one)
SUV's are just status symbols. Proof that poorly endowed asswipes care more about their self-image, then what is good for us all.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/688493/new_study_shows_small_men_prefer_big.html?cat=47

Not even close. Don't know if you know this or not, but there was no genetic engineering involved in the Cavendish. Genetic engineering is not a way of life, it's a tool for altering a plant, and like breeding (which brought you things like the 70's corn failure), you can use it well or poorly. Some people want to use genetic engineering to improve biodiversity. For example, introducing ripening delaying traits to heirloom tomatoes and other crops that just don't ship well, or widening the growing range of crops to enable them to be grown in more areas. Yeah, no doubt Monsanto doesn't care about polyculture (although, to be fair, given the choice between a strange, I don't know, White Tomesol tomato, and perfectly round red hybrid #385, what one are consumers going to choose?), but Monsanto does not own GE tech any more than Merck owns pharmacology or the principles of vaccinations. Some people advocate locally developed GMOs. Problem is, thanks to all the scientifically illiterate anti-technology (and yes, it anti-GMO is anti-science, I used to give them much more credit until I really started to grasp the issue) opposition going against GMOs, only companies like Monsanto (and Sygentia, BASF, Bayer, Dupont, Dow, ect) have the resources to get them approved. It would be like if you hated McDonald's so much you wouldn't let any other restaurants open. Anti-GMO sentiment is the best thing that ever happened to Monsanto.

You seem smart enough to get that GMOs aren't going to hurt you (and considering everything has likely had horizontal gene transfer at one point it it's evolutionary history, humans included, it would be surprising if they were inherently dangerous), but understand that monoculture is not the way it has to be. Instead of opposing genetic engineering in general on those grounds, it would be far more constructive to support a better use of the technology. Genetic engineering should be an enabler of polyculture, right now it is more or less just a complement to monoculture systems that have existed before GMOs were a part of the food supply (but of course, so are tractors).

I think they even cancelled some transactions in that event. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2978400/updates_on_dow_jones_drop_includes.html?cat=3

I suspect if certain people win, they keep their winnings, if they lose too much, the transactions are cancelled.

"THOR SCHMUCK"? LMAO, well, people can read there, and see that he refused to answer my points there when I replied (on PING.EXE, SPYBOT SEARCH & DESTROY, & MORE)

He is, afaik, the one that submitted my app to CA as a malware (& it's not intended for that kind of use, I wrote it in good faith for a forums guy that wanted a way to launch OLD Apache server for Windows like a service, invisibly, & since that's only 1-2 lines of code to do? I did!).

CA, now there's a story. Ask Computer Associates about their being caught in a millions of dollars financial/accounting scam, here:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/215116/computer_associates_cofounder_led_22.html

Real reputable company, eh?

In fact, I passed every single one of the 21 questions for removal of my ware from their site, & all they ended up doing was lowering it down to a "zero threat level"... but, I'm not too concerned about it, because they also do it to others (along with other Antivirus/Antispyware companies, and we all know how "effective" those are, especially lately vs. today's "blended threats").

Ask Dr. Mark Russinovich of Microsoft or Nir Softer of NIRSOFT if they've ever had their numerous apps libeled along with themselves in the same manner... (answer = they have, so I suppose I am in "good company" here, eh?)

Thor Schrock, lol, another "credible expert" (NOT): That guy doesn't even have a CSC degree or even a single A+ type certification to his name.

All I can say to and about Thor SCHMUCK, is this: GOD BLESS TY TYMKOVICH (LOL, run that by him, it ought to be good for a laugh... the fool got wickedly SUCKERED by him to the tune of $5,500)...

----

JEREMY REIMER??

He got caught by his ISP, Shaw in Canada, for email harassing me as well as impersonating me on his website (along with death threats from he & his pal Jay Little which ended up with a detective Felton in B.C. Canada where Reimer lives taking care of the rest for me).

LOL, Reimer's SO UNQUALIIED, he had to try to bring others, much to his own dismay... especially Fat Jay Little!

Jay Little, who claimed to be an "Exchange Expert" @ Windows IT Pro forums, and when I showed him that MICROSOFT'S OWN DOCUMENTATION PROVED THAT MEMORY OPTIMIZERS COULD RESTART A STALLED EXCHANGE SERVER? Jay Little had to eat his own "self-proclaimed" expert status on Exchange, and left in shame... but, not without stalking me to NTCompatible.com, & getting himself banned there (as he has been at Microsoft's Channel 9 before also for similar stupidities), but also blowing it AGAIN, badly, on ramdisk and their uses plus windows crash dump analysis messages determinations too...

Big comedy & "too, Too, TOO EASY" for me!

This in turn, ended up with death threats from Reimer and Little on their websites, and ended up with CrystalTech.com removing Jay Little's website IN ITS ENTIRETY (forcing him to lol, find another hosting provider) and portions of Reimer's site also being forcibly removed... after Reimer libeled me, made threats to me, and far more.

APK

P.S.=> So much for your "links", because you're only helping me show those 2 as the undereducated & blatantly unqualified FOOLS they are in this art & science! Thank you in fact... Additionally, thank you for showing us all, AGAIN, that slashdot & its cronies like you, are just not THAT GOOD @ picking "experts" (just like this posts use of B. Krebs of the post submitters source, scamdetect, & the editors here doing that blunder VERY UNPROFESSIONALLY in their editing no less)... apk

"THOR SCHMUCK"? LMAO, well, people can read there, and see that he refused to answer my points there when I replied (on PING.EXE, SPYBOT SEARCH & DESTROY, & MORE)

He is, afaik, the one that submitted my app to CA as a malware (& it's not intended for that kind of use, I wrote it in good faith for a forums guy that wanted a way to launch OLD Apache server for Windows like a service, invisibly, & since that's only 1-2 lines of code to do? I did!).

CA, now there's a story. Ask Computer Associates about their being caught in a millions of dollars financial/accounting scam, here:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/215116/computer_associates_cofounder_led_22.html

Real reputable company, eh?

In fact, I passed every single one of the 21 questions for removal of my ware from their site, & all they ended up doing was lowering it down to a "zero threat level"... but, I'm not too concerned about it, because they also do it to others (along with other Antivirus/Antispyware companies, and we all know how "effective" those are, especially lately vs. today's "blended threats").

Ask Dr. Mark Russinovich of Microsoft or Nir Softer of NIRSOFT if they've ever had their numerous apps libeled along with themselves in the same manner... (answer = they have, so I suppose I am in "good company" here, eh?)

Thor Schrock, lol, another "credible expert" (NOT): That guy doesn't even have a CSC degree or even a single A+ type certification to his name.

APK

P.S.=> All I can say to and about Thor SCHMUCK, is this: GOD BLESS TY TYMKOVICH (LOL, run that by him, it ought to be good for a laugh... the fool got wickedly SUCKERED by him to the tune of $5,500)... apk

What I cannot wrap my head around are the instances where radicals want people in other countries, with different laws, to obey a radical Islamic law. WTF?

They're not.

Oh rly??

Note GP never said the radicals were members of the government.

These games from the Humble Indy Bundle have not been released under a free license, nor does it appear they will be. All that is being released are their engines.

Following the ID tradition.

There are already dozens of free software game engines available with no free software games which use them.

And because of Engine only releases Open Source developers have been able to produce a host of new games. From the Quake engines alone we have Tremulous, Warsow, Alien Arena just to name a few.

Having a proven Engine under your Project allows developers to focus on Assets and Level Design and tweaking the gameplay to a much larger degree than is possible if developing the engine as well.

There is another benefit to the original developers and users in that their games survive onto the next era of computing and gaming devices.(iPhones, Androids and insert your favorite tablet device here)

Actually, not true.

IANAL either, but have you ever heard of abandonment doctrine? For example, police cannot go through your trash (in the US) if it's on your property, but when you put it out to be collected, it's on public property (sidewalk) and is considered abandoned. So you can't just store any old property anywhere you wish. Cars? That's another story, I'm referring more to small personal possessions.

Similarly this could apply to things you leave about, however, ethics dictate that a person reasonably try to contact the original owner of such property (I would and have) to return said item. If owner not found nor seeking their property to be returned, enjoy the item.

Now that monopoly is gone, but you behave like it's still there.

Really, though, it is.
Note, that article is two years old.

So why would a teen get an iPhone

Because iPhones are cool, and kids want to be cool and have cool stuff. It really is that simple. Different example, from a few decades ago: Levis 501 jeans with the red tag were the only cool, acceptable jeans in my school. Wearing something like Toughskins from Sears would get you laughed at, and possibly beaten just for the fun of it because there was a reasonable certainty that the kid in them was a lot less tough than the jeans themselves.

I shudder at the memories ...

Read my other post on the very real, and very strict guns laws in Switzerland.

Denmark's homicide rate is per 100,000 per year is .88
The US homicide rate is 5.4

Gun control laws do absolutely nothing to stem violence, a fact that anti-gun people tend to ignore.

You're quite simply full of shit.

Unfortunately for you, crime statistics here in the U.S. disagree with you. Just because something works in your country does NOT mean that it will work by default in our country.

Here in America, the right to own and bear arms is very much a deeply rooted ideal that stems from the founding of this country. It is statistically proven over and over that here in America, states and cities that allow their law abiding citizens to carry firearms have much lower crime rates than in states or cities that restrict gun ownership by law abiding citizens.

As I have said in previous comments, before 2005 Washington D.C. had a general gun ban. No one in the city limits was allowed any firearms at all. D.C. had some of the highest crime rates in the country.

When the Supreme Court ruled the ban unconstitutional in 2005 and lifted the ban, violent crime rates plummeted, dropping 25% within the first year and continued to decline after.

Prior to 2005, D.C. had extremely high crime rates. After 2005, D.C. is no longer in the top 10 list of highest crime rated cities in the U.S. In reality, it's not even one of the top 25 of most violent places to live. The only thing that change... the gun ban was lifted.

In the U.S. more legally owned guns means less crime. Our statistics prove that over and over again.

I also reference a town called Kennesaw in Georgia. This town actually REQUIRES that all home owners maintain atleast one firearm WITH ammunition. This was passed in 1982 and to this day, the town sees some of the lowest crime rates in the country. In the first year the law being passed, crime fell 75%.

Here is the link where you can read about it:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/738709/firearm_ownership_is_mandatory_for.html?cat=17

Guns are necessary to a free and safer America, and are an essential liberty that needs to be maintained.

"Those who would give up essential liberties for a little temporary security deserve neither liberty nor security." - Benjamin Franklin

"I was just following orders" does not work. Ever.

Apparently, it does.

Hmm, some brief googling turns up a page which appears to offer a decent answer:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/71874/concurrent_vs_consecutive_sentences.html?cat=17

What's the logic behind concurrent sentences.

Your question prompted me to google and I found concurrent vs consecutive sentences. It seems that it is up t the judge to decide how to sentence someone based on touchy feely concepts of their prior history. IE if they were previously good before committing 2 separate crimes then they might get concurrent sentences. If they are bad people then they might get consecutive sentences.

I wouldn't worry about people emigrating....odds are they would move to a country with a government run health care system anyway...they just don't realize it. Even Rush made that mistake with this quote:

I don't know. I'll just tell you this, if this passes and it's five years from now and all that stuff gets implemented -- I am leaving the country. I'll go to Costa Rica

By the way, Costa Rica has a health care system subsidized by the state:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/357920/costa_rica_a_look_at_its_national_healthcare.html?cat=5

..and with the way real estate prices have gone in the U.S. they won't be moving anytime soon. In 5 years they'll have forgotten about what they were bitching about anyway.

I dislike them because:

For all their vaunted Christian morals and breastbeating on the importance of marriage, they have a higher divorce rate than the national average, and even 50% higher than the atheists and agnostics they despise.

You're right about the divorce rate and guess what, God agrees with you! he HATES divorce! Also you're mostly right about the despising attitude towards atheists and agnostics, the truth is Christians, like Atheists and Agnostics, are human and therefore similar in their behavior towards those who don't share the same views. I can tell you that while I don't agree with their views I do not despise them. Some may despise them but this is more a human trait, as a Christian is called to 'love your neighbor as yourself."

After they fail and ask God for forgiveness, they go right back to the hookers with whom they got caught (c.f., Jimmy Swaggart).

This is also true, but then if we fail once, try again, and fail again should we give up anyway? Edison wouldn't have given us the light bulb should we give up so easily!

They embezzle millions from their mega-churches, which makes me think they're in it for the money more than the God (c.f., Jim Baker).

This is also true but the Bible does say "You shall not steal" and Jim Bakers theft from his church is sad, but stealing isn't limited to Christians and the idea that stealing is bad isn't limited to non-Christians as you have proved by finding it just as detestable. Did you know Jesus shared your view?

They extort millions from their followers by claiming God will kill them if the sheep don't pay up (c.f., Oral Roberts).

This I do not agree with (not your comment but Oral Roberts behavior) and you're right this is extortion. However when I give to my church I give because I want to, not because I'm compelled to. As far as claiming God will kill them, he won't. He will pass judgement upon them and especially to the leaders who do misrepresent what God says.

They spend their Christian lives doing everything they can to make homosexuals suffer, only to get busted offering to pay guys at truck stops to receive blowjobs from them (c.f., Bob Allen), or tapping their foot in an airport restroom (c.f., Larry Craig), or using their ministry's travel budget to fund methamphetamine and gay sex party weekends (c.f., Ted Haggard).

You're right about these supposed leaders of the Faith, they are a disgrace but no more so than anyone of any other belief whether its religious, philosophical, or ideological who fails miserably. Tiger Woods, Kobe Bryant, and Michael Phelps come to mind. As far as making homosexuals 'suffer' I do not see what you mean, if you are saying that by believing homosexual behavior is immoral and voting based on that belief then you do not respect the democratic right for someone to disagree with you. If by suffer you mean we tar and feather them you would be correct and I'd agree that we do make them suffer, but that wouldn't be what Jesus had called us to do.

In other words, I dislike them because they're hypocrites who claim they're better than everyone else when in fact, they're usually worse, but they're very happy to try to force their morals on me through laws and textbooks

I dislike them because:

For all their vaunted Christian morals and breastbeating on the importance of marriage, they have a higher divorce rate than the national average, and even 50% higher than the atheists and agnostics they despise.

After they fail and ask God for forgiveness, they go right back to the hookers with whom they got caught (c.f., Jimmy Swaggart).

They embezzle millions from their mega-churches, which makes me think they're in it for the money more than the God (c.f., Jim Baker).

They extort millions from their followers by claiming God will kill them if the sheep don't pay up (c.f., Oral Roberts).

They spend their Christian lives doing everything they can to make homosexuals suffer, only to get busted offering to pay guys at truck stops to receive blowjobs from them (c.f., Bob Allen), or tapping their foot in an airport restroom (c.f., Larry Craig), or using their ministry's travel budget to fund methamphetamine and gay sex party weekends (c.f., Ted Haggard).

In other words, I dislike them because they're hypocrites who claim they're better than everyone else when in fact, they're usually worse, but they're very happy to try to force their morals on me through laws and textbooks.

> So, no names with accent ?

Of course you can. You need to expand/adapt the example. One of the biggest holes in sql queries is allowing backtics (0x60) and/or semicolons (0x3B) to be passed straight-through. If you *need* those characters, then subject input containing those characters to extra scrutiny in your code. Eliminate potential input conflicts all together if you don't intend to be working with it.

It's better to get a call about intentional failure of your code, rather than that of *unintentional* failure of your code.
Just ask Nokia*

[*] - http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/135988/nokia_website_hacked_by_drjr7.html

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1044817/constitution_day_review_of_laws_recently.html?cat=37

"The Sun Sentinel reported this week that a Riviera Beach law prohibiting the wearing of pants low enough to expose underwear or skin was declared unconstitutional after three young men were arrested and jailed after police spotted their boxer shorts showing above their pant waists." -- you can't give back to those men the time they spent in jail.

"Two years ago a North Carolina court struck down as an unconstitutional infringement on liberty a 201 year old law prohibiting cohabitation by unmarried couples. From 1997-2006, there had been 36 arrests for violation of the state cohabitation law, according to USA Today." -- same.

It only takes a few moments on your preferred search engine to fine plenty of other past examples of people who have served time for "violation" of laws which were later found to be unconstitutional.

Sorry,I read the linked page and I couldn't find where they were addressing the points made by BadAnalogyGuy. How about this if anthropgenic CO2 is responsible for significant global warming, then why after the CO2 levels have still been rising, there has been No Significant Global Warming for 15 years?

not sure where you got that premise of the castle doctrine, in most southern states with that law (like texas) you don't have to be in fear for your life, or the intruder even be armed, if at your own residence.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/852831/deadly_force_and_self_defense_to_protect.html?cat=17
Pretty much every state says you don't have to retreat from your property instead of deadly confrontation, (ie any "I was scared for my life" defense, if reasonable, would work at home.) Some states even allow you to protect yourself with deadly force to hold your ground in any setting where you are legally allowed to be.

Offtopic, but actually you can't.

"The ratio of cannabis material required to produce a fatal overdose to the amount required to saturate cannabinoid receptors and cause intoxication is 40,000:1; consumption of such a large dose is virtually impossible. It is generally considered impossible to overdose on marijuana, as the user would certainly either fall asleep or otherwise become incapacitated from the effects of the drug before being able to consume enough THC to be mortally toxic."
- Effects of Cannabis

For some fun reading, try this site

"Step one: First you must procure enough cannabis to die from lethal toxicity when consumed. Doing so can be a rather arduous process, unless you are able to grow your own. You will have to obtain approximately 1,500 pounds of cannabis, or about 681.81 kilograms."

> Untrue. Low cost only (there are small fees). And (sometimes very long!) queues..

In the USA it seems the poor often sit in the _emergency_rooms_ of hospitals to get medical treatment. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/336126/emergency_room_abuse_the_poor_use_emergency.html

Either way you're going to have people clogging up the system. So it seems better to me to not have people clogging up "ER" with non emergency stuff.

If I am not in a critical state, having 50-100 people ahead of me is very annoying, but I can literally live with that. And I have.

In the country I'm in (Malaysia) there's subsidized healthcare. It isn't the best (Malaysia is a corruption-ridden developing nation after all), but it is cheap. If you're rich you can go to a private hospital (where they might not be that great either, but you can be sure they are more expensive ;) ).

"Do you really think that the cop who pulls you over for a traffic violation really needs to call a judge to get approval to ask you if he can search your vehicle? That's ridiculous."

In the US? Yes, he does.

NO, he does not.

Of course the cop doesn't need a permission from a judge to ask. The cop can always ask, but you don't have to agree to the search. In fact you are best off to explicitly state that you do not consent to a search. They can still do an involuntary search in some circumstances like probable cause, open view, etc.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/54988/know_when_police_can_search_your_vehicle.html?cat=17
http://flexyourrights.org/faq/74

I used to ride my bike through a nice little place called the Rainbow Village. Definitly sketchy. One evening, I was followed by a car who turned their lights off shortly after spotting me. I got away, because I hopped a barrier and rode through a construction site they couldn't drive through. Scary, but only happened once in the year I worked along that route.

Now, I would have to ride across the Gandy Bridge - only just shy of 3 miles, but I don't fancy riding across the bridge at 2pm in rainy weather... I'd be more worried about a car hitting me than the water though.

But... I gotta do something. I'm a mess right now, and it is only getting worse.

Links that are not reputable or factual but seem to support my case... (but I'm not a doctor so I can't tell)

http://archinte.highwire.org/cgi/content/summary/90/4/513
http://www.fao.org/docrep/009/a0442e/a0442e0m.htm
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/28630.php
http://www.alternet.org/story/274/
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/280264/obese_britons_also_at_risk_for_malnutrition.html?cat=51
http://www.springerlink.com/content/r718533228ph9g55/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8581766
http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S155072890800600X ...but in all truth I am not nearly as qualified as you are to talk about these things. I'm parroting things I've seen in biased documentaries. I bow before your might.

Well, here's a picture of the Jonas Brothers in a security line at LAX. Here's one of Paris Hilton at LAX. Here is a whole who's-who of famous celebrities who have gotten in trouble going through standard airport security, including Naomi Campbell, Snoop Dogg, Courtney Love, Whitney Houston, and Paul McCartney. Now, I'm not saying they're treated the same: Whitney Houston had issues because they found a bunch of pot in her carry-on -- but they let her board the plane and keep the pot. Likewise if you're Britney Spears they'll hold your liter-sized container of liquid while you go through security and then give it back to you but the image of rich people only flying in private jets is completely false. They regularly fly on commercial aircraft along with the proles.

You are exactly right. A fantastic series conceived by Harlan Ellison and involving some of the greatest Science Fiction writers of the time, destroyed by bad acting, bad production, and bad pretty-well everything else. If you want a sense of how frustrating working on the series was, read Ben Bova's The Starcrossed. I especially like the early concept for the Internet, a booth where you can sit and ask a virtual person questions. Even his delivery was stuttering and with strange emphases in places, suggesting that his replies were composed of spliced together phonemes.

See this video for an introduction to the brilliant concept that was so ham-fistedly delivered in the original series.

And I'm going to pimp my article on how many common medical lab procedures absolutely require animal products. There are some critical tests that can't be done without them.

Keep in mind, in China they use green spray paint on the grass in its parks and the sides of its strip-mined mountains.