Hearing aids are Class 1 Medical devices.... that's the same category as a toothbrush. You don't need to vising a licensed dentist with trade lobbyists to get a toothbrush.
This is why you can buy hearing aids off of TV, the internet, all without a fitting, or a clue what you are getting... Kinda scary because an improper fitting/setting can deafen you.
What I tell people when they ask why they are so expensive - cost in making them. Each hearing aid (in the ear/canal) is custom made by hand, if done wrong, it is re-done at full cost, but the customer doesn't pay for remakes (as stated above). Plus the hearing aid isn't "Make everything louder". It's a very complex device. Think of an expensive home stereo, the type with a bunch of sliders. Now shrink that and put it in your ear. Only have hearing loss in the 1.5 khz range? then that is the only thing boosted... or the sound in that range is shifted up or down. Different environment? have the aid automatically adjust from a noisy lunchroom mode to park mode when you walk outside. Add in directional sound detection so the aid knows the voice in front of you is likely the one you are listening to and not the voice behind you... Add in wireless communication between aids to help find the direction where sound is coming from, plus use media streamers to listen to the TV. Do all of that in something about the size (maybe smaller) than a pen cap.
And no, Health insurance doesn't cover hearing aids (most of the time, maybe there is a few, but that is the exception, not the rule).
This was before the "Ohh by the way, floating ice doesn't raise the ocean level if it melts" fact was pointed out... He held a Ph.D. in Geology to boot!
I'm a software engineer who has Faith. I sit near a guy who has his cube decorated in Catholic icons and a picture of him meeting the Pope. My boss is a practicing Catholic. My other cube neighbor has a Lord Ganesha figure on his desk. All of us are Software Engineers, so I'd say we are technologically literate.
Also, I'm a huge nerd... Heck I once even wore a pocket protector (it was cool! shuddup!). Don't paint with such a broad brush.
I saw this on a different article quite some time ago and clipped it. The link to the article doesn't work any more so author "unknown"
Why, if Christianity is for fools and idiots and the Bible is a compendium of myths and fairy stories, are the atheists here so acrimonious and malevolent in their condemnation simply because Christians don't share their "superior enlightenment"? Christians are indeed saddened by the fact that not everyone has accepted the gift of Faith but they do not wish them any ill-will nor mock or insult them nor seek to persecute them on account of this. Rather they pray for their conversion for their benefit and for the glory of God and not for Christians to be able to gloat or feel self-satisfied.
From the article in the above/. story, 78% believe God had a hand in human development. 15% believe no "God" had a role in where we are today... We have a lot of people calling others stupid for what they believe... who is ridiculing who.
My Geology professor (Huge AGW proponent), said that Memphis TN will be a coastal city in 50 years (then)... well now that will be 40 years. Right now most of the Florida Keys should be underwater.
Sounds like the people want something more measurable and reliable than theories.
How about the $4 billion bonus aid to Louisiana given to gain the support of Mary Landrieu?
Or how about how all student loans must come from the Bank of North Dakota, all to gain the support of Kent Conrad?
Yeah the Corn-husker Kickback was pulled out, but only because the tea party in Nebraska forced the issue and hoped by pulling it, it would save his seat. And now since it looks like he wouldn't win even with pulling it out, he's retiring... taking a bullet for the Democrat team so another democrat might get elected.
There are a couple of others... I recall there were five or so 'shady deals' pulled to get enough Democrats to vote for the bill (without reading it!!!). I'm still jaw dropped on how anybody can re-elect anybody who signed that bill. Nothing is worse than "Jam this down your throat" legislation. There was a CBS poll done right before the vote and it showed 80% had "DO NOT WANT" on it... but it was rammed through anyway.
Why is wanting frugal government spending and lower taxes "not intelligent"?
To me, giving the government a blank check isn't smart. Remember when the Tea Party was formed, we were hearing "You must pass it in order to find out what is in it"... How STUPID is that? Would you sign a car loan that you didn't read, on a car you didn't get to see for 4 years, for a price that somebody else "kinda sorta" gives you an estimated price (that may (will) change)... How smart is that?
When the health care bill looked like there wasn't enough Democrat signatures to pass (didn't matter if 100% republicans voted against it, they didn't have any chance to stop it alone)... The glorious powers that be decided to try to have signed without being signed by waiting for enough people to go on Christmas vacation, then passing it with a budget (one of those assumed to be passed)... When that didn't look like it would work, congress members were flat out BRIBED! There was no shame and no effort to hide it. Congressmen got huge kick-backs for their home state if they changed to supporting the bill.
Considering that/. has a gamification system in place for posts, and that it works...at least in some cases.
Every post here has a score. Post something positive (Funny, member of the 3 I's, etc) and you gain points. If you post something stupid, try to flamebait, etc, lose points.
Points affect karma score, and also affects (I believe) getting points to give to others.
Now do I want to see gamification at my hospital... going into to surgery and seeing a score board for "10 pts for organ removed, 15 pts for replacement organ, -1 pt for every 20 minutes in surgery"... I wouldn't be happy.
Actually, I think that brain damage caused football here.
As (I think) Foxworthy put it: Helmets are proof we are the dumbest people around. We do something that has the hazard of cracking our heads open, and instead of stopping this activity, we design a helmet to prevent cracking our heads open.
You can't buy Linux Format because of an article about hacking (which is legal), but you can buy your copy of High Times (full of articles about something illegal under federal law)...
Picard... force? Picard never forced anybody to do anything.
Want proof that DS9 is > TNG (and even Voyager for that mater). Q. in TNG, Q kept popping in and out and the Enterprise crew was helpless to him. Voyager crew same thing happened. DS9.... Q showed up once. Sisko punched him and Q never showed up again.
More proof. What happened to captains after the show ended. Kirk died helping Picard. Picard retired to a vineyard. Janeway became an admiral.... Sisko joined the profits and became a god.
How about ships. The Defiant had a Vorcha class warship pretty much at point blank range, constantly firing all weapons on her, when Sisko needed to beam surviors over... What did he do? Lower shields and start beaming. No problem. The Defiant came out pretty much unscathed, just one sub-system knocked out (The Romulan cloaking device). The Enterprise, nor Voyager (outside of the final episode) could take that pounding.
and Finally, going back to your roots. Star Trek is a western. Just a space western. It was billed as "Wagon train" to the stars. The first Star Treks even had bullet ricochets sound effects when phasers missed. DS9 returns to the western theme, as a "Tombstone" in space. You have all the classic western locals. The saloon complete with brothel upstairs, The sheriff, old country church, one-room school house, natives that are rather upset with the new-comers to the area, and some natives that welcome the new comers... Heck it even follows the Spanish-American war and the Fall of the Alamo...
TNG just turned into a soap opera. Worf's kid is having trouble in school! Oh noes!. Data has a date! How will it turn out! Picard has to deal with his feelings and sob on his brother's shoulder...
The order of Trek is: DS9, VGR, TOS, ENT, TNG, TAS... with DS9/VGR up to debate who is first. (I can see VGR in a close second, but I can see arguments for it being before DS9...)
(BTW: Feel feel free to downrate this. Just can't stand seein' TNG being argued better than DS9...)
By all counts, math, physics, biology, chemistry, there can't be life anywhere.
Life develops not so easily... The requirements are pretty strict. Lets go over them.
The Star: We need to have a star that is very stable, no binary stars, no pulsars, No dwarfs, no giants, just a star that gives out a very steady amount of energy. The wrong star could me by the time we are in a stable orbit, we are too cold, or too hot, or flooded with nasty radiation that could stop life all together. A "common yellow" does the trick, but one as stable as ours isn't as common as the implies
Next we need to work on the layout of the solar system. We need a planet in the right spot, in the Eden/Goldilocks zone. After that we need a moon around that planet to help with tectonic shift, and tidal affects (to encourage life). The moon has to be the right size to aid life, not to cause massive land/sea waves. Then we need a secondary gravity well, say.... Jupiter. This helps pull all the rogue asteroids into a nice belt away from our planet (we don't want the planet pelted non stop!)
Next we need to look at the make-up our of our planet. We need lots of carbon (or silicon), oxygen, liquid water, nitrogen (and I'm cutting the list short here) in abundance on the planet. we need the right amounts and we need land (even for sea life), sea and an atmosphere. We need a planet with an Iron core (or other magnetic substance) to create a magnetic shield to protect us from the sun. We need a the right rotation on the planet, If our days were as long as Venus' we'd be dead... Too fast doesn't work too.
Just getting the environment set up. We have eliminated vast majority of the planets out there.
Then we get into the improbability of life forming... That by itself is a mystery we have no clue on how it happened. "lightning stuck the mud" doesn't cut it in my book, and about as creditable as an alien playing SimEarth made life. It's a huge "Then the magic happens" moment...
Now before somebody says "Well the Universe is infinite"... No it is not. Somewhere out there is the Big Bang Event Horizon, outside of which nothing exists. the father out we go from the universe center (where the "bang" happened) the less complex elements we find, to the point where we don't find anything more complex than hydrogen.
So... Life cannot happen. If you run into something that looks like a life form, just know you are likely imagining it.
Book to read: Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe.
Re:All politicians bad...except for my guy of cour
on
In Nothing We Trust
·
· Score: 1
Politicians and diapers should be changed often. Both for the same reason.
I like it when science can be challenged, reviewed. When theories can be questioned. When models can be tested and retested with out being called a heretic and locked in a dungeon until you conform.
If I question BFSS model in M-Theory, people consider it scientific, and willing to debate and explore alternate theories.
If I question the carbon model in global warming theory, people claim it's unscientific, and continue ad hominem attacks.
Back in the day, I worked at a dial-up ISP. I was working in tech support, and working in the PC-Repair office, and while most calls were the "Your caps lock is on" and "The power is out, wait for it to turn on" issues. There were some fun with the PC-Repair office (Coffee stains in the CD Load-tray (the stories are true!), or the "I never used antivirus! I know what I'm doing" people that tended to wind up on our "Maleware Count High Score" board.
One day I took a call from a lady that said she couldn't send and receive email. She said she was on her cell phone so I had her walk through trying to get the email and get the error message - 680: No dial tone. So I asked her to make sure the phone cord is plugged in to the computer and the wall. She said her laptop didn't need to be plugged in using a phone cord. Well now I'm thinking she had a wireless network setup and about to go through those settings, when I noticed the sound in the background.... Traffic. She and her husband was in the middle of the road. She insisted that she could unplug everything and still get her email while on the freeway before. Ends up that laptop was their only computer (no home wireless). I told her she could send/receive email when she connects to a phone line again, but she demanded to talk to my manager, who confirmed everything I said. She ended up stating she would look for other services that would know how their systems run better... I checked a couple of months later and her account was still active. Guess no other dial-up internet company offered a hundred mile long phone cord.
My mother is still on AOL. They switched to a free service if you use somebody else for an ISP, and I know that there are a ton of people who still use it for dial-up service because there is no other option. If you live 20 miles into the country, there is no cable, and no satellite, and likely no cell data coverage. So unless you are going to drop a few hundred bucks to check email and view a couple of web pages... "You've got Mail!"
Zimmerman wasn't 240 lbs. though. That figure was estimated based on the old photo of Zimmerman.
Zimmerman's stats (according to one of his friends) are: 5'8, and 170 pounds.
You and me both. Calling the cops is the correct answer
But the real question then becomes what you would do after you called the cops. Would you wait for the cops to arrive? Or would you grab a gun, chase down a random stranger, and kill him?
Would you wait for the cops to arrive? Or would you step out of the car, ask the person a question ("What are you doing here?") get punched, jumped on, and beaten, and in the chaos, pull out your hand gun and fire.
Some reports show that Zimmerman got out of the car, and talked to Martin. Martin asked "Why are you following me?" and Zimmerman asked "What are you doing here?" At that point a fight broke out. Now who started the fight is a question I'd like answered. Both could have. If Zimmerman started it, he should be arrested for aggravated assault, and (at the very least) manslaughter, up to Murder. If Martin started the fight...
You don't know Zimmerman started the fight. From what I've seen reported, Zimmerman asked Martin a question, and Martin punched him, then jumped on Zimmerman and started to beat him.
Keep in mind this "child" was 6'3" and 17 years old. Not the 12 year old boy the media is showing (Hmmm portray Martin as a young boy and Zimmerman as a racist (via doctored 911 call audio), and tried REALLY hard to portray Zimmerman as white, when he is Hispanic... Why would they do that?)
Keep in mind, two days ago the police report was released on this. There are six adult witnesses on it. The cops did take Zimmerman's weapon as evidence and took 3 statements and a video statement.
This is the Duke Lacrosse case all over again. The media tries to spin racial injustice (that's great for ratings!!!) but the facts (and DNA) say the accused is innocent.
Slashdot Mirror
Hearing aids are Class 1 Medical devices.... that's the same category as a toothbrush. You don't need to vising a licensed dentist with trade lobbyists to get a toothbrush.
This is why you can buy hearing aids off of TV, the internet, all without a fitting, or a clue what you are getting... Kinda scary because an improper fitting/setting can deafen you.
What I tell people when they ask why they are so expensive - cost in making them. Each hearing aid (in the ear/canal) is custom made by hand, if done wrong, it is re-done at full cost, but the customer doesn't pay for remakes (as stated above). Plus the hearing aid isn't "Make everything louder". It's a very complex device. Think of an expensive home stereo, the type with a bunch of sliders. Now shrink that and put it in your ear. Only have hearing loss in the 1.5 khz range? then that is the only thing boosted... or the sound in that range is shifted up or down. Different environment? have the aid automatically adjust from a noisy lunchroom mode to park mode when you walk outside. Add in directional sound detection so the aid knows the voice in front of you is likely the one you are listening to and not the voice behind you... Add in wireless communication between aids to help find the direction where sound is coming from, plus use media streamers to listen to the TV. Do all of that in something about the size (maybe smaller) than a pen cap.
And no, Health insurance doesn't cover hearing aids (most of the time, maybe there is a few, but that is the exception, not the rule).
Austrian Monk named Gregor Mendel?
This was before the "Ohh by the way, floating ice doesn't raise the ocean level if it melts" fact was pointed out... He held a Ph.D. in Geology to boot!
I'm a software engineer who has Faith. I sit near a guy who has his cube decorated in Catholic icons and a picture of him meeting the Pope. My boss is a practicing Catholic. My other cube neighbor has a Lord Ganesha figure on his desk. All of us are Software Engineers, so I'd say we are technologically literate.
Also, I'm a huge nerd... Heck I once even wore a pocket protector (it was cool! shuddup!). Don't paint with such a broad brush.
I saw this on a different article quite some time ago and clipped it. The link to the article doesn't work any more so author "unknown"
Why, if Christianity is for fools and idiots and the Bible is a compendium of myths and fairy stories, are the atheists here so acrimonious and malevolent in their condemnation simply because Christians don't share their "superior enlightenment"? Christians are indeed saddened by the fact that not everyone has accepted the gift of Faith but they do not wish them any ill-will nor mock or insult them nor seek to persecute them on account of this. Rather they pray for their conversion for their benefit and for the glory of God and not for Christians to be able to gloat or feel self-satisfied.
From the article in the above /. story, 78% believe God had a hand in human development. 15% believe no "God" had a role in where we are today... We have a lot of people calling others stupid for what they believe... who is ridiculing who.
Lets all play nice, shall we?
My Geology professor (Huge AGW proponent), said that Memphis TN will be a coastal city in 50 years (then)... well now that will be 40 years. Right now most of the Florida Keys should be underwater.
Sounds like the people want something more measurable and reliable than theories.
How about the $4 billion bonus aid to Louisiana given to gain the support of Mary Landrieu?
Or how about how all student loans must come from the Bank of North Dakota, all to gain the support of Kent Conrad?
Yeah the Corn-husker Kickback was pulled out, but only because the tea party in Nebraska forced the issue and hoped by pulling it, it would save his seat. And now since it looks like he wouldn't win even with pulling it out, he's retiring... taking a bullet for the Democrat team so another democrat might get elected.
There are a couple of others... I recall there were five or so 'shady deals' pulled to get enough Democrats to vote for the bill (without reading it!!!). I'm still jaw dropped on how anybody can re-elect anybody who signed that bill. Nothing is worse than "Jam this down your throat" legislation. There was a CBS poll done right before the vote and it showed 80% had "DO NOT WANT" on it... but it was rammed through anyway.
Why is wanting frugal government spending and lower taxes "not intelligent"?
To me, giving the government a blank check isn't smart. Remember when the Tea Party was formed, we were hearing "You must pass it in order to find out what is in it"... How STUPID is that? Would you sign a car loan that you didn't read, on a car you didn't get to see for 4 years, for a price that somebody else "kinda sorta" gives you an estimated price (that may (will) change)... How smart is that?
When the health care bill looked like there wasn't enough Democrat signatures to pass (didn't matter if 100% republicans voted against it, they didn't have any chance to stop it alone)... The glorious powers that be decided to try to have signed without being signed by waiting for enough people to go on Christmas vacation, then passing it with a budget (one of those assumed to be passed)... When that didn't look like it would work, congress members were flat out BRIBED! There was no shame and no effort to hide it. Congressmen got huge kick-backs for their home state if they changed to supporting the bill.
Is that the kind of government you want???
Considering that /. has a gamification system in place for posts, and that it works...at least in some cases.
Every post here has a score. Post something positive (Funny, member of the 3 I's, etc) and you gain points. If you post something stupid, try to flamebait, etc, lose points.
Points affect karma score, and also affects (I believe) getting points to give to others.
Now do I want to see gamification at my hospital... going into to surgery and seeing a score board for "10 pts for organ removed, 15 pts for replacement organ, -1 pt for every 20 minutes in surgery"... I wouldn't be happy.
Actually, I think that brain damage caused football here.
As (I think) Foxworthy put it: Helmets are proof we are the dumbest people around. We do something that has the hazard of cracking our heads open, and instead of stopping this activity, we design a helmet to prevent cracking our heads open.
You can't buy Linux Format because of an article about hacking (which is legal), but you can buy your copy of High Times (full of articles about something illegal under federal law)...
Picard... force? Picard never forced anybody to do anything.
Want proof that DS9 is > TNG (and even Voyager for that mater). Q. in TNG, Q kept popping in and out and the Enterprise crew was helpless to him. Voyager crew same thing happened. DS9.... Q showed up once. Sisko punched him and Q never showed up again.
More proof. What happened to captains after the show ended. Kirk died helping Picard. Picard retired to a vineyard. Janeway became an admiral.... Sisko joined the profits and became a god.
How about ships. The Defiant had a Vorcha class warship pretty much at point blank range, constantly firing all weapons on her, when Sisko needed to beam surviors over... What did he do? Lower shields and start beaming. No problem. The Defiant came out pretty much unscathed, just one sub-system knocked out (The Romulan cloaking device). The Enterprise, nor Voyager (outside of the final episode) could take that pounding.
and Finally, going back to your roots. Star Trek is a western. Just a space western. It was billed as "Wagon train" to the stars. The first Star Treks even had bullet ricochets sound effects when phasers missed. DS9 returns to the western theme, as a "Tombstone" in space. You have all the classic western locals. The saloon complete with brothel upstairs, The sheriff, old country church, one-room school house, natives that are rather upset with the new-comers to the area, and some natives that welcome the new comers... Heck it even follows the Spanish-American war and the Fall of the Alamo...
TNG just turned into a soap opera. Worf's kid is having trouble in school! Oh noes!. Data has a date! How will it turn out! Picard has to deal with his feelings and sob on his brother's shoulder...
The order of Trek is: DS9, VGR, TOS, ENT, TNG, TAS... with DS9/VGR up to debate who is first. (I can see VGR in a close second, but I can see arguments for it being before DS9...)
(BTW: Feel feel free to downrate this. Just can't stand seein' TNG being argued better than DS9...)
A day without fusion is like a day without sunshine!
I gatta get me this shirt (on thinkgeek)...
By all counts, math, physics, biology, chemistry, there can't be life anywhere.
Life develops not so easily... The requirements are pretty strict. Lets go over them.
The Star: We need to have a star that is very stable, no binary stars, no pulsars, No dwarfs, no giants, just a star that gives out a very steady amount of energy. The wrong star could me by the time we are in a stable orbit, we are too cold, or too hot, or flooded with nasty radiation that could stop life all together. A "common yellow" does the trick, but one as stable as ours isn't as common as the implies
Next we need to work on the layout of the solar system. We need a planet in the right spot, in the Eden/Goldilocks zone. After that we need a moon around that planet to help with tectonic shift, and tidal affects (to encourage life). The moon has to be the right size to aid life, not to cause massive land/sea waves. Then we need a secondary gravity well, say.... Jupiter. This helps pull all the rogue asteroids into a nice belt away from our planet (we don't want the planet pelted non stop!)
Next we need to look at the make-up our of our planet. We need lots of carbon (or silicon), oxygen, liquid water, nitrogen (and I'm cutting the list short here) in abundance on the planet. we need the right amounts and we need land (even for sea life), sea and an atmosphere. We need a planet with an Iron core (or other magnetic substance) to create a magnetic shield to protect us from the sun. We need a the right rotation on the planet, If our days were as long as Venus' we'd be dead... Too fast doesn't work too.
Just getting the environment set up. We have eliminated vast majority of the planets out there.
Then we get into the improbability of life forming... That by itself is a mystery we have no clue on how it happened. "lightning stuck the mud" doesn't cut it in my book, and about as creditable as an alien playing SimEarth made life. It's a huge "Then the magic happens" moment...
Now before somebody says "Well the Universe is infinite"... No it is not. Somewhere out there is the Big Bang Event Horizon, outside of which nothing exists. the father out we go from the universe center (where the "bang" happened) the less complex elements we find, to the point where we don't find anything more complex than hydrogen.
So... Life cannot happen. If you run into something that looks like a life form, just know you are likely imagining it.
Book to read: Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe.
Politicians and diapers should be changed often. Both for the same reason.
You mean like rocket scientists?
I like it when science can be challenged, reviewed. When theories can be questioned. When models can be tested and retested with out being called a heretic and locked in a dungeon until you conform.
If I question BFSS model in M-Theory, people consider it scientific, and willing to debate and explore alternate theories.
If I question the carbon model in global warming theory, people claim it's unscientific, and continue ad hominem attacks.
I'll share my own store of tech support blues...
Back in the day, I worked at a dial-up ISP. I was working in tech support, and working in the PC-Repair office, and while most calls were the "Your caps lock is on" and "The power is out, wait for it to turn on" issues. There were some fun with the PC-Repair office (Coffee stains in the CD Load-tray (the stories are true!), or the "I never used antivirus! I know what I'm doing" people that tended to wind up on our "Maleware Count High Score" board.
One day I took a call from a lady that said she couldn't send and receive email. She said she was on her cell phone so I had her walk through trying to get the email and get the error message - 680: No dial tone. So I asked her to make sure the phone cord is plugged in to the computer and the wall. She said her laptop didn't need to be plugged in using a phone cord. Well now I'm thinking she had a wireless network setup and about to go through those settings, when I noticed the sound in the background.... Traffic. She and her husband was in the middle of the road. She insisted that she could unplug everything and still get her email while on the freeway before. Ends up that laptop was their only computer (no home wireless). I told her she could send/receive email when she connects to a phone line again, but she demanded to talk to my manager, who confirmed everything I said. She ended up stating she would look for other services that would know how their systems run better... I checked a couple of months later and her account was still active. Guess no other dial-up internet company offered a hundred mile long phone cord.
*raises hand*
My mother is still on AOL. They switched to a free service if you use somebody else for an ISP, and I know that there are a ton of people who still use it for dial-up service because there is no other option. If you live 20 miles into the country, there is no cable, and no satellite, and likely no cell data coverage. So unless you are going to drop a few hundred bucks to check email and view a couple of web pages... "You've got Mail!"
The legacy system doesn't require both parents to be your characters.
Zimmerman wasn't 240 lbs. though. That figure was estimated based on the old photo of Zimmerman.
Zimmerman's stats (according to one of his friends) are: 5'8, and 170 pounds.
So 6'3" 160 lbs Vs 5'8" 170 lbs.
Source
"It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog."
--Mark Twain
I know plenty of extremely scrawny guys that could beat the drek out of somebody.
You and me both. Calling the cops is the correct answer
But the real question then becomes what you would do after you called the cops. Would you wait for the cops to arrive? Or would you grab a gun, chase down a random stranger, and kill him?
Would you wait for the cops to arrive? Or would you step out of the car, ask the person a question ("What are you doing here?") get punched, jumped on, and beaten, and in the chaos, pull out your hand gun and fire.
Some reports show that Zimmerman got out of the car, and talked to Martin. Martin asked "Why are you following me?" and Zimmerman asked "What are you doing here?" At that point a fight broke out. Now who started the fight is a question I'd like answered. Both could have. If Zimmerman started it, he should be arrested for aggravated assault, and (at the very least) manslaughter, up to Murder. If Martin started the fight...
You don't know Zimmerman started the fight. From what I've seen reported, Zimmerman asked Martin a question, and Martin punched him, then jumped on Zimmerman and started to beat him.
Keep in mind this "child" was 6'3" and 17 years old. Not the 12 year old boy the media is showing (Hmmm portray Martin as a young boy and Zimmerman as a racist (via doctored 911 call audio), and tried REALLY hard to portray Zimmerman as white, when he is Hispanic... Why would they do that?)
Keep in mind, two days ago the police report was released on this. There are six adult witnesses on it. The cops did take Zimmerman's weapon as evidence and took 3 statements and a video statement.
This is the Duke Lacrosse case all over again. The media tries to spin racial injustice (that's great for ratings!!!) but the facts (and DNA) say the accused is innocent.
I suppose you believe that the sun shines because it hasn't exploded - all thanks to regulation and taxes as well.