Particularly cause they are supposed to be from the same source - but they don't match.
On the first graph Canada never goes above 55% (not even in projections) - on the second one it hits 60% overweight in 2008. Austria is around 44% in 2006 on the first graph, never going over 48%, even in projections, but it hits 48% in 2006 on the second graph. Italy - 39% or 46% in 2008? Australia - 54% or 62% in 2007? Is it England or United Kingdom?
Also, that's not the only place they messed up.
Correction: September 23, 2010 An earlier version of the second graph in this post ("Percent of Adults Who Are Overweight/Obese") had reversed the labels for the rates of obesity and overweight populations. The graph has been corrected.
The implant does not cause the lack of appetite - it simulates the feeling of being full and prevents one from feeling "hungry", where hungry is synonymous with "empty stomach". It does not stop one from snacking NOR "treating" anxiety with food NOR absorbing calories through the stomach OR the intestines.
Without intentionally changing my diet, with the exception of ditching soda for iced tea, I lost 85 pounds in 10 months.
How much soda? Those are HUGE source of sugar. On top of that, CO2 in sodas increases the pressure and turbo-charges the reaction of absorption of those calories.
Once I stopped taking those pills, I slowly put the weight back on
Did you start drinking soda again and what made you start going to lunch again? Hunger for food or for social interaction? Clearly, you didn't need those calories for almost a year - while you were taking in a substance which messes with dopamine levels.
2000 calories per day from processed cereal, from fresh fruit and vegetables and from meat costs the same?
Ready to eat burger and soda, 5 minute microwave meal and an hour-long preparation of a meal (plus cleaning up afterward) take up the same time and cost the same to prepare?
A hour of exercise each day is something which is affordable to both those making $100 an hour and those making $3 and hour, doing 3 jobs?
That's bullshit. Obese people have pretty much the same metabolism as skinny people. It's not your "metabolism" that makes you obese, it's how much and what you eat.
The basal metabolic rate varies between individuals. One study of 150 adults representative of the population in Scotland reported basal metabolic rates from as low as 1027 kcal per day (4301 kJ/day) to as high as 2499 kcal/day (10455 kJ/day); with a mean BMR of 1500 kcal/day (6279 kJ/day). Statistically, the researchers calculated that 62.3% of this variation was explained by differences in fat free mass. Other factors explaining the variation included fat mass (6.7%), age (1.7%), and experimental error including within-subject difference (2%). The rest of the variation (26.7%) was unexplained. This remaining difference was not explained by sex nor by differing tissue size of highly energetic organs such as the brain.[10]
Thus there are differences in BMR even when comparing two subjects with the same lean body mass. The top 5% of people are metabolizing energy 28-32% faster than individuals with the lowest 5% BMR.[11] For instance, one study reported an extreme case where two individuals with the same lean body mass of 43 kg had BMRs of 1075 kcal/day (4.5 MJ/day) and 1790 kcal/day (7.5 MJ/day). This difference of 715 kcal/day (67%) is equivalent to one of the individuals completing a 10 kilometer run every day.[11]
On top of that, activity factor would have no effect if it were "not your "metabolism" that makes you obese, it's how much and what you eat."
Anything that can seriously help people control their weight isn't a gimmick, it's a fix
This is closer to a gimmick. And a dangerous one at that. From TFA:
In a 12-month clinical trial considered by the FDA, 38.3% of subjects who received the active Maestro device lost at least a quarter of their excess weight, and 52.5% of subjects lost at least 20% of their excess weight. On average, weight loss in those subjects with an active device was about 8.5% greater than that seen in subjects who received a Maestro electrical pulse generator that was not activated. ...
While the cost of the device has not yet been set, Lea said that getting the device implanted and activated will likely cost "somewhere between $20,000 and $30,000"--an amount that is more than gastric banding but less some of the most complex gastric bypass surgery.
Over a year, on average, it increases the weight loss by "about 8.5%" compared to an implant which was turned off. And, it works for about half the people.
I.e. For the people who have been losing weight through other means, 92.2% of the weight loss is attributable to FACTORS OTHER THAN THE IMPLANT. "About 8.5%" increase is about 7.8% of the new total.
That thing severing of which causes mice to give up and surrender in stressful situations? They are flooding that with jamming signals during the hours when one is awake. What could possibly go wrong, right?
And to achieve what? A sense of satiety. Because as we all know, we eat ONLY when we are hungry and we intake food by volume, regardless of the calories. 100 grams of Nutella and 100 grams of cucumbers is the same to us. We just need to get our stomach to think it is stuffed with SOMETHING - and then we will stop gaining weight.
At least according to the logic behind this "50-50 chance for 8.5% increase in the effectiveness of dieting" gimmick which works by jamming one's nervous system.
That $30000 spent would be better invested into healthier food and exercise. Heck... it's TWO annual federal minimum wages in the USA. One could literally spend a year on that money doing nothing but working on their health.
It seems like it is - on paper. In reality that bell curve is actually skewed to the right - due to the limiting effects of low intelligence and test error.
The peak in the middle of the curve is actually a flat line, so the top of the curve is not a single person with a perfect IQ100, but millions of people scoring AROUND IQ100. Also, due to the built-in unreliability of the test itself, a certain percentage will certainly score less than their actual intelligence. Due to stress, various environmental and personal issues, even things like time from last meal or how many hours of sleep one had prior to the test. For all those things there is no normalizing effect which would increase the score - if there were it would be outselling any drug out there.
So, the curve actually leans to the right at the top, but the measured result comes out as symmetrical due to normalization which distorts the representation of the reality, due to the assumption that the only measurement error is in (in)accurately counting the number of correct answers (which is self-normalizing).
Meanwhile, on the far ends of the curve (both left and right) you got what seems like exactly the same number of geniuses (right) and severely retarded (left). Except that those under a certain level of IQ can't take part in a society at all and must be housed in special institutions - or they die.
So instead of a perfect 50-50 bell curve, it is closer to 40something - average - 50something division. Where 50+X % are of above average IQ, average IQ is a certain percentage instead of a peak in the middle, some small percentage of people are either babies, senile, comatose or severely retarded people incapable of taking care of themselves and the remaining 40+Y percent are in the below average but intellectually functional bracket.
There is no limit on the above average side of the curve at which said IQ would negatively affect a persons ability to function. There is such a limit on the below average side, and it is far above 0.
and since the kids didn't have their "we're free range & ok" sign with them
Clearly, the solution is to make that sing into an armband or a badge that could be attached to kids' clothes. It would probably be prudent to make it easily discernible and recognizable from a distance. Perhaps something in bright yellow?
that's what you believe, all power to you to believe whatever it is. I'll argue the other side and we'll see who is more convincing.
It does not work like that.
Those people don't believe. They KNOW.
Religion and its rules gives one the luxury of a fully described, ordered universe. So just as you KNOW that the fire is hot - they KNOW that you are an abomination. God says so. The more you argue against it only proves that essential truth. Everything religious IS essential. Word of god.
The people you "can get along with" don't really believe all that bullshit. They are religiously inert. They wouldn't slit the throat of their firstborn cause a voice from the heavens or a dream or a vision told them to. Those who REALLY believe all that shit - they would.
Or they would blow themselves up. Or kill doctors cause god said abortion is murder. Or that you shall not have false idols, including drawings and sculptures. He really hates that shit. It's a "kill your own brother" offense.
And the issue isn't as black/white as that either. Freedom comes with a price-tag; are we all willing to pay the price? And if not, is it right to force the majority to pay the price so that a minority can say what they like without having to fear any consquences? If you actually believe in freedom, then you have to accept that others have the freedom to not want the same as you.
There is no majority/minority dichotomy when it comes to freedom. Both cost and benefit are suffered and enjoyed by ALL. It is a presumed, preconceived and built-in feature of a society which aims for any kind of semblance to a society of equal norms of any kind.
You start distinguishing freedoms based on belonging to any kind or size of a group and you've got yourself a society of citizens and non-human humanoid... creatures. Kinda like people but really lower beings. You can cut them or prick them as much as you like. They don't really feel things like you and I do. They only understand the whip. Anything else just does not get through their simpler senses.
And if not, is it right to force the majority to pay the price so that a minority can say what they like without having to fear any consquences?
Freedoms being universal in a society resembling something of a free and democratic one, that imaginary majority can suck a big one and bend over and take up their stupid ass as long as there is something to be given. And then wait patiently until more is imported from abroad so it could be jammed up their stupid asses.
See... Without the freedom to say what you mean, you can't complain when minority comes into your house and uses you for a poker bucket. You can't even say "Thank you sir. Please, can I have some more." No freedom of speech. Sorry. Only freedom to obey left I'm afraid.
If you actually believe in freedom, then you have to accept that others have the freedom to not want the same as you.
Sure, sure... Just as if you actually believe in money then you have to accept that I can just come into your home and take yours - because I want it.
No... Wait... Wanting something (or not) does NOT make that a valid claim or argument. If it did a harem of beautiful women would be servicing my cock at all times. On my private space-station/tropical island. And I'd be immortal. Beggars and horses. Them I'd use for target practice.
Nor does WANTING SOMETHING give it ANY validity as an argument for restriction of EVERYONE'S freedoms which are ESSENTIAL for anything like a free society. Including imaginary unattainable concepts such as safety or security.
I REALLY desire that space station you know. And those beautiful women. And immortality. I desire it more than any minority or majority could ever possibly desire for oxygen.
And the cock is my penis. Not my rooster. Those beautiful women would be sucking on it and fondling it gently. It's a part of a decades long scientific experiment to see if it ever gets boring.
No. We are not talking about Concorde. We are talking about Hunger Games. You are drawing parallels between pyramids and Nazis with Hunger Games - NOT with Concorde. Or are you arguing that Concorde was created so people would suffer? Which is where you draw, wrongly, the parallel with pyramids and Eichmann.
And NO. Jews were NOT getting punished. They were being EXTERMINATED. Like lice. Or rats. They were not deemed as people but as PESTS. Nazis weren't killing or punishing members of their own society - they were exterminating ANOTHER SPECIES of lower, subhuman, toxic creatures who represented a danger to everything and everyone by their traitorous ways and their disease ridden foul and poisonous blood. Don't you know that diseases come from impure and degenerate blood and mongreling of races? THAT is what they KNEW. Not what they believed. KNEW! It was scientific FACT and COMMON SENSE.
"Fire is hot" kind of thing. Not "Fire is a demon/spirit/god" kind of thing. And most certainly NOT "Fire is rapid oxidation of a material in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products".
Neither pyramids NOR the holocaust have anything to do with "economical or sensible" - because both those actions WERE COMMON SENSE. To their way of thinking/living.
Just like smoking cigarettes, or drinking, or racial segregation, or slavery, or burning witches is all COMMON SENSE to the people of the time it takes place. Or take it the other way round - drug and alcohol prohibition, loose gun laws, treating corporations as persons...
Hunger Games on the other hand requires, DEMANDS, that we accept an economic and REASONABLE explanation for the districts. THEN it demands that we accept that the problem is actually "crazy-mad rulers".
I.e. The system is FINE. It's just being run badly. See... if we just get some of that glitz and technology to the districts, they'll be able to do their manual labor much more efficiently and thereby enjoy their startrekian technology which has no need for their manual labor... wait... umm... republic... freedom... stuff...
"Fire is an oxidation caused by demons."
The world you are describing actually makes more sense. E.g. Imagine a scene where Catpuss Everwobble finds out that all that shit that districts were producing is just being dumped into the ocean by robots. I.e. That the technology shown everywhere in the capitol is actually used in every facet of that society and that hard manual labor of the districts really IS just punishment for insurrection.
"You were born not to be a slave Miss Everwobble, but to be punished for the sins of your species against the something or other represented by the capitol. Racial purity, freedom, government, economy, god... stuff. Fuckit... what was the theme of this story again?"
But that never happens. Because - imagining a working economy demands scientific reasoning. Collins writes children's fantasy books.
The name Panem is itself a fucking allusion to Juvenal, who was denouncing Roman demagogues who used gladiatorial spectacles and welfare payments to pacify the masses.
Are you serious or just trolling?
Did you really buy into that bullshit that they've named their PAN-AMERICAN country after a tongue in cheek label for bad government and stupidity of people being governed? Why not just call it Stupidia or Dumbfuckia? No... wait... I KNOW!
Circussia!
Get it? It is both a fuckin allusion to that same critique of governing by appeasing the masses, it has a homophonic allusion to another GreatBigCountryTM with historically questionable governing policies BUT with the added twist of turning out to be "here" and not "there" (Readers will never see THAT coming...Hohoho!) AND unlike having your country be called Breadloafia calling it a RoundRingWallia has a certain RING to it...
Like it is an endless ring, or a covenant, or a symbol of a country surrounded on all sides by oceans or enemies, or a link in a chain, or a hollow thing, or a shackle... Shit, you can write in layers upon layers of meaning and symbolism into that. Any half decent READER could come up with it. Let alone a writer.
Trouble is Collins is not that good of a writer. She is a writer of fantasy for children, based on other people's templates - i.e. ripping off other people's ideas. She can churn out sequels of simple plot, but when it comes to making believable worlds or themes... she can only copy other people's work.
Which is why the main protagonist of Hunger Games is not the prime mover or the explorer of the story but a passive observer whose primary concern during a revolution (that she is a fucking symbol for) is will she fuck the baker or the candlestick maker.
It's a children's FANTASY book, porned-up for teenage girls. Any shit goes. Wizard did it.
I don't know why we're even talking about this. Might as well examine the logic of magic in Harry Potter.
Also note the lack of uprisings and revolutions because Squiky Mookmook got voted out. Then compare with reports from one of the actual or figurative wars USA wages, with "tributes" being killed off in hundreds and thousands. Note the complete lack of interest for other people's "tributes" and often great pride from friends and family when one of their own gets to be "tributed". Get blown up by an IED or locked up by DEA - you're sure gonna make your homies proud.
Then, compare with Hunger Games where apparently people are SO FUCKING MOVED by random teenager No. 2567 and her fake romance that they tear down a tyranny they lived under from time immemorial.
She might have just as well dropped a glass slipper on her way to the dwarf compound in the forest and holed up in the tower until her hair grew to insane length. It would be as cromulent a fairytale.
Eichmann and the pyramids are not really valid comparisons. Both those cases ARE extension of the will of the god-ruler AND the cognitive dissonance accepted by the people. Be it that their god-king really needs that huge thing for afterlife or that the Jews must be eliminated at all cost. Not a punishment.
At the same time, Hunger Games tries really hard to make a point of it that the districts are actually needed for the goods they produce. I.e. That it is some kind of an economic necessity to keep the districts poor and hungry in order to keep the capitol rich and fat.
On top of it all, the premise of the games is... ridiculous. Primarily as some kind of a deterrent and punishment - when the spectacle around it makes it into entertainment. Seriously, even if it was a show only for the families of the contestants in order to torture them for some made up reason - THEY WOULD NOT CARE for most of the contestants.
There is no reason for anyone other than their immediate family AND MOST CERTAINLY anyone outside their district to care about anyone other than THEIR "tributes". And if they would care - it would be only in a way that EVERYONE would still love the winner in the end.
Providing people with celebrities is NOT punishment.
Hunger Games are a shallow, not well thought through copy of Stephen King's lesser works supposedly crossed with the Minotaur myth only mostly not.
This is exactly the problem I had with reading the Hunger Games. Everything worked, except why would a society with hover cars and other advanced technology have need of the services of the districts?
Same thing - in reverse.
Richard K. Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs books. It is constantly repeated that there is an oligarchy which "exploits" the "masses" in an economic, political or some other sense.
Trouble is... Everyone is practically immortal. Sure... for SOME REASON it supposedly costs A LOT of money to get a new body... but... they have virtual worlds. AND you get to improve your education and earn degrees in virtual. AND they have colonies across the galaxy and extremely well paying jobs for the taking... yet there is squalor. AND nearly anyone actually CAN afford to get a new body, but not on a daily basis like the rich. There are wars... which again don't make sense as everyone is quite happy to nuke people but somehow they still fight using infantry.
Only ACTUAL oppression of the "masses" taking place comes from within the people themselves - through religious rules which prevent people from getting a new body after death. Which, again, is a self-limiting process - but instead of religions dying out in couple of centuries, their proponents are allowed to become more extreme and push their own dogma onto everyone else AND they increase in number.
And then there are other things that crop up which keep making it all rather implausible even with all the magical technology they have at hand, left by the Martian dei ex machinae. Like how anything ever gets done with all that fucking AND virtual worlds AND holoporn.
...the choice of target. There are certain people out there willing to kill certain people out there for no money at all.
For bonus points, have the bot convince random people that it is a teenage girl, THEN get them to "off someone" in exchange for sexual favors. Oldest "girl" with most kills wins.
It's OK. Turing would approve. I know that from watching that Cabbagepatch movie.
I'm pretty sure that for any spreading of civilization a LOT of fucking will be of vital importance.
Machines don't constitute civilizations and clones are more like really elaborate fan clubs. Sure, artificial insemination IS possible but that's the same result but without all the fun. And the civilization that rejects fun is a dull and eventually dead civilization.
I like the bit where running a space transport company with long term cargo, people and fuel transporting plans and goals, including but not limited to resupplying the ISS is equated with "shoot[ing] endangered animals on [a] safari".
Why not just call Musk an apartheid-lovin fascist nazi-commie from South-WeHateBlackPeople-Africa?
It's not SUCH drivel. It's drivel of another kind.
He "figured out" that if you can afford to live anywhere in the world - you kinda stop caring about things like borders and flags. I.e. He figured out that it is good to be rich. Whether through personal wealth or by being born in a wealthy society which can afford to be technologically advanced.
Trouble with his "realization" lies around the fact that people have a tendency and even need towards living in and being a part of a group of some kind. So even should most people reject nationalities as defining criteria, they will still flock to something which will provide them with positive identity image cheaply and readily.
And while being an Apple, Ford or Pepsi man MIGHT be relatively cheap and is an identity that gets advertised readily - none of those can hold a candle to a little flag waving at a sports event or at some other government sponsored achievement. Like landing a man or a piece of machinery on the Moon. Not to mention all those instances of flag waving during other positive events through the history.
It's not the money or the technology or the lack of that creates the borders. People will flock to a rag on a pole and march to a ditty because it is a lot EASIER than acquiring a personal identity of their own. Going with the flow is easy and relaxing.
People start reading that tweet and their associations light up before they are through (cold, snow, shopping - Jesus) and they expect to read it's about Jesus but then suddenly - SNAP! It ain't. Then they realize at about the same time that what they are reading IS true and that their prejudice caused them to be wrong about such a trivial thing.
That's when the E (as in ego) comes in, and the following train of emotionally loaded thoughts rushes through their minds:
"That ain't fair. I WAS right. He changed the rules. It was SUPPOSED to be about Jesus. I can't be wrong! I'm smart and shit! He's making fun of me. But he can't be making fun of ME - cause I WAS right and I AM smart. HE MUST BE MAKING FUN OF JESUS!!!111eleven! HE'S CALLING JESUS AN ASSHOLE AND SAYING THAT CHRISTMAS IS BULLSHIT!"
They are not actually thinking all that. It's purely an unconscious thing, with only the final result floating up to their conscious mind. Their minds are offering them a way out of feeling embarrassed about their own fault, by being angry about someone else's perceived fault. It's a defense mechanism.
It's the same thing as being angry at spilled milk (or the container it came in) instead of crying over being clumsy. It hurts less when your problem is someone else's fault.
His statements in TFA are a collection of fallacies and nonsense. Navel gazing until you start seeing the world through your own ass is not art. Ask any proctologist.
"Human beings are unable to return to the unspoiled living environment of the past, and have become victims of their own endeavors. In the biblical time, Noah's Ark is the last resort for humans to escape from the termination of the world. However, if Noah's Ark sinks, where is the hope of the human race? If Noah's Ark, a symbol of mankind salvation, becomes just as a shipwreck, human and nonhuman were placed in an equal position. Human subject is losing his predominance as the supreme center of the world."... "It is certain that, no matter what circumstance will turn out, there will certainly be a disaster beforehand," explains Peng. "Destruction and construction always grow and demise together. We will once again encounter the problem of moral degeneration."
And the author of the article seems to be in the same category of faux-thinkers.
It depicts a time when the Anthropocene period (a period when human activities have/had significant global impact on Earthâ(TM)s ecosystems), is replaced by the Mechanocene period when machinery begins taking over some of the jobs.
Last time someone made fun of North Korea and its leaders exactly nothing happened. Same with demonizing them as "invadorz" instead of Chinese. Or that time James Bond fought a North Korean villain who made himself into a rich and powerful white man.
In fact... Last time anyone actually went out and committed a terrorist attack killing a bunch of people in a a theater - it was a crazy, white, male, American. With store and online bought guns. And the movie was kept in theaters despite the bodycount. Why?
Cause it was a final sequel of a very successful franchise whose last movie made over a billion dollars.
In other words... Corporations have brass balls when gold is on the line.
And again... If they can't really cover a mere 18000 targets... What good are they? Along with all the other "terrorist fighting" measures? Trillions of dollars and unquantifiable liberties went up in smoke - and 18000 theaters turns out to be "too much"?
Maybe they should think outside the box on this one? Or more like inside a different kind of a box. Maybe what's needed is a better kind of a theater? A safe and secure kind, where nothing bad can happen. We can call it Security Theater.
They modeled the thing for ALL of the open sea being turned into bubbles. It's not happening.
Geo-engineering is not the magic bullet. Nor do we have it, the gun to fire it from, the target to shoot it at and on top of it all we don't know how to shoot the said gun nor on which side of the gun do bullets go in and on which side of it do they come out.
Slashdot Mirror
Particularly cause they are supposed to be from the same source - but they don't match.
On the first graph Canada never goes above 55% (not even in projections) - on the second one it hits 60% overweight in 2008.
Austria is around 44% in 2006 on the first graph, never going over 48%, even in projections, but it hits 48% in 2006 on the second graph.
Italy - 39% or 46% in 2008?
Australia - 54% or 62% in 2007?
Is it England or United Kingdom?
Also, that's not the only place they messed up.
Correction: September 23, 2010
An earlier version of the second graph in this post ("Percent of Adults Who Are Overweight/Obese") had reversed the labels for the rates of obesity and overweight populations. The graph has been corrected.
The implant does not cause the lack of appetite - it simulates the feeling of being full and prevents one from feeling "hungry", where hungry is synonymous with "empty stomach".
It does not stop one from snacking NOR "treating" anxiety with food NOR absorbing calories through the stomach OR the intestines.
Without intentionally changing my diet, with the exception of ditching soda for iced tea, I lost 85 pounds in 10 months.
How much soda? Those are HUGE source of sugar.
On top of that, CO2 in sodas increases the pressure and turbo-charges the reaction of absorption of those calories.
Once I stopped taking those pills, I slowly put the weight back on
Did you start drinking soda again and what made you start going to lunch again? Hunger for food or for social interaction?
Clearly, you didn't need those calories for almost a year - while you were taking in a substance which messes with dopamine levels.
Changing nutrition and exercising costs nothing
2000 calories per day from processed cereal, from fresh fruit and vegetables and from meat costs the same?
Ready to eat burger and soda, 5 minute microwave meal and an hour-long preparation of a meal (plus cleaning up afterward) take up the same time and cost the same to prepare?
A hour of exercise each day is something which is affordable to both those making $100 an hour and those making $3 and hour, doing 3 jobs?
That's bullshit. Obese people have pretty much the same metabolism as skinny people. It's not your "metabolism" that makes you obese, it's how much and what you eat.
People are NOT one size fits all.
And there are HUGE variations in BMR from person to person.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B...
Causes of individual differences in BMR
The basal metabolic rate varies between individuals. One study of 150 adults representative of the population in Scotland reported basal metabolic rates from as low as 1027 kcal per day (4301 kJ/day) to as high as 2499 kcal/day (10455 kJ/day); with a mean BMR of 1500 kcal/day (6279 kJ/day). Statistically, the researchers calculated that 62.3% of this variation was explained by differences in fat free mass. Other factors explaining the variation included fat mass (6.7%), age (1.7%), and experimental error including within-subject difference (2%). The rest of the variation (26.7%) was unexplained. This remaining difference was not explained by sex nor by differing tissue size of highly energetic organs such as the brain.[10]
Thus there are differences in BMR even when comparing two subjects with the same lean body mass. The top 5% of people are metabolizing energy 28-32% faster than individuals with the lowest 5% BMR.[11] For instance, one study reported an extreme case where two individuals with the same lean body mass of 43 kg had BMRs of 1075 kcal/day (4.5 MJ/day) and 1790 kcal/day (7.5 MJ/day). This difference of 715 kcal/day (67%) is equivalent to one of the individuals completing a 10 kilometer run every day.[11]
On top of that, activity factor would have no effect if it were "not your "metabolism" that makes you obese, it's how much and what you eat."
Anything that can seriously help people control their weight isn't a gimmick, it's a fix
This is closer to a gimmick. And a dangerous one at that.
From TFA:
In a 12-month clinical trial considered by the FDA, 38.3% of subjects who received the active Maestro device lost at least a quarter of their excess weight, and 52.5% of subjects lost at least 20% of their excess weight. On average, weight loss in those subjects with an active device was about 8.5% greater than that seen in subjects who received a Maestro electrical pulse generator that was not activated.
...
While the cost of the device has not yet been set, Lea said that getting the device implanted and activated will likely cost "somewhere between $20,000 and $30,000"--an amount that is more than gastric banding but less some of the most complex gastric bypass surgery.
Over a year, on average, it increases the weight loss by "about 8.5%" compared to an implant which was turned off.
And, it works for about half the people.
I.e. For the people who have been losing weight through other means, 92.2% of the weight loss is attributable to FACTORS OTHER THAN THE IMPLANT.
"About 8.5%" increase is about 7.8% of the new total.
All that at the yet unknown cost of MAYBE $20-30k, invasive surgery and most importantly - randomly fucking about with one's nervous system.
They are patching-in this implant to jam that same network which we KNOW to be a major neurological pathway and of huge importance "in the bidirectional communication of the gut-brain axis and...useful therapeutic adjuncts in stress-related disorders such as anxiety and depression".
That thing severing of which causes mice to give up and surrender in stressful situations?
They are flooding that with jamming signals during the hours when one is awake.
What could possibly go wrong, right?
And to achieve what? A sense of satiety.
Because as we all know, we eat ONLY when we are hungry and we intake food by volume, regardless of the calories.
100 grams of Nutella and 100 grams of cucumbers is the same to us.
We just need to get our stomach to think it is stuffed with SOMETHING - and then we will stop gaining weight.
At least according to the logic behind this "50-50 chance for 8.5% increase in the effectiveness of dieting" gimmick which works by jamming one's nervous system.
That $30000 spent would be better invested into healthier food and exercise.
Heck... it's TWO annual federal minimum wages in the USA.
One could literally spend a year on that money doing nothing but working on their health.
It seems like it is - on paper.
In reality that bell curve is actually skewed to the right - due to the limiting effects of low intelligence and test error.
The peak in the middle of the curve is actually a flat line, so the top of the curve is not a single person with a perfect IQ100, but millions of people scoring AROUND IQ100.
Also, due to the built-in unreliability of the test itself, a certain percentage will certainly score less than their actual intelligence.
Due to stress, various environmental and personal issues, even things like time from last meal or how many hours of sleep one had prior to the test.
For all those things there is no normalizing effect which would increase the score - if there were it would be outselling any drug out there.
So, the curve actually leans to the right at the top, but the measured result comes out as symmetrical due to normalization which distorts the representation of the reality, due to the assumption that the only measurement error is in (in)accurately counting the number of correct answers (which is self-normalizing).
Meanwhile, on the far ends of the curve (both left and right) you got what seems like exactly the same number of geniuses (right) and severely retarded (left).
Except that those under a certain level of IQ can't take part in a society at all and must be housed in special institutions - or they die.
So instead of a perfect 50-50 bell curve, it is closer to 40something - average - 50something division.
Where 50+X % are of above average IQ, average IQ is a certain percentage instead of a peak in the middle, some small percentage of people are either babies, senile, comatose or severely retarded people incapable of taking care of themselves and the remaining 40+Y percent are in the below average but intellectually functional bracket.
There is no limit on the above average side of the curve at which said IQ would negatively affect a persons ability to function.
There is such a limit on the below average side, and it is far above 0.
And he IS the younger and more vital one.
It's probably all that vegetarian food.
and since the kids didn't have their "we're free range & ok" sign with them
Clearly, the solution is to make that sing into an armband or a badge that could be attached to kids' clothes.
It would probably be prudent to make it easily discernible and recognizable from a distance.
Perhaps something in bright yellow?
that's what you believe, all power to you to believe whatever it is. I'll argue the other side and we'll see who is more convincing.
It does not work like that.
Those people don't believe. They KNOW.
Religion and its rules gives one the luxury of a fully described, ordered universe.
So just as you KNOW that the fire is hot - they KNOW that you are an abomination. God says so.
The more you argue against it only proves that essential truth.
Everything religious IS essential. Word of god.
The people you "can get along with" don't really believe all that bullshit. They are religiously inert.
They wouldn't slit the throat of their firstborn cause a voice from the heavens or a dream or a vision told them to.
Those who REALLY believe all that shit - they would.
Or they would blow themselves up. Or kill doctors cause god said abortion is murder.
Or that you shall not have false idols, including drawings and sculptures.
He really hates that shit. It's a "kill your own brother" offense.
And the issue isn't as black/white as that either. Freedom comes with a price-tag; are we all willing to pay the price? And if not, is it right to force the majority to pay the price so that a minority can say what they like without having to fear any consquences? If you actually believe in freedom, then you have to accept that others have the freedom to not want the same as you.
There is no majority/minority dichotomy when it comes to freedom.
Both cost and benefit are suffered and enjoyed by ALL.
It is a presumed, preconceived and built-in feature of a society which aims for any kind of semblance to a society of equal norms of any kind.
You start distinguishing freedoms based on belonging to any kind or size of a group and you've got yourself a society of citizens and non-human humanoid... creatures.
Kinda like people but really lower beings.
You can cut them or prick them as much as you like. They don't really feel things like you and I do.
They only understand the whip. Anything else just does not get through their simpler senses.
And if not, is it right to force the majority to pay the price so that a minority can say what they like without having to fear any consquences?
Freedoms being universal in a society resembling something of a free and democratic one, that imaginary majority can suck a big one and bend over and take up their stupid ass as long as there is something to be given.
And then wait patiently until more is imported from abroad so it could be jammed up their stupid asses.
See... Without the freedom to say what you mean, you can't complain when minority comes into your house and uses you for a poker bucket.
You can't even say "Thank you sir. Please, can I have some more."
No freedom of speech. Sorry. Only freedom to obey left I'm afraid.
If you actually believe in freedom, then you have to accept that others have the freedom to not want the same as you.
Sure, sure...
Just as if you actually believe in money then you have to accept that I can just come into your home and take yours - because I want it.
No... Wait...
Wanting something (or not) does NOT make that a valid claim or argument.
If it did a harem of beautiful women would be servicing my cock at all times. On my private space-station/tropical island. And I'd be immortal.
Beggars and horses.
Them I'd use for target practice.
Nor does WANTING SOMETHING give it ANY validity as an argument for restriction of EVERYONE'S freedoms which are ESSENTIAL for anything like a free society.
Including imaginary unattainable concepts such as safety or security.
I REALLY desire that space station you know. And those beautiful women. And immortality.
I desire it more than any minority or majority could ever possibly desire for oxygen.
And the cock is my penis. Not my rooster.
Those beautiful women would be sucking on it and fondling it gently.
It's a part of a decades long scientific experiment to see if it ever gets boring.
No. We are not talking about Concorde. We are talking about Hunger Games.
You are drawing parallels between pyramids and Nazis with Hunger Games - NOT with Concorde.
Or are you arguing that Concorde was created so people would suffer?
Which is where you draw, wrongly, the parallel with pyramids and Eichmann.
And NO.
Jews were NOT getting punished. They were being EXTERMINATED. Like lice. Or rats.
They were not deemed as people but as PESTS.
Nazis weren't killing or punishing members of their own society - they were exterminating ANOTHER SPECIES of lower, subhuman, toxic creatures who represented a danger to everything and everyone by their traitorous ways and their disease ridden foul and poisonous blood.
Don't you know that diseases come from impure and degenerate blood and mongreling of races?
THAT is what they KNEW. Not what they believed. KNEW!
It was scientific FACT and COMMON SENSE.
"Fire is hot" kind of thing. Not "Fire is a demon/spirit/god" kind of thing.
And most certainly NOT "Fire is rapid oxidation of a material in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products".
Neither pyramids NOR the holocaust have anything to do with "economical or sensible" - because both those actions WERE COMMON SENSE.
To their way of thinking/living.
Just like smoking cigarettes, or drinking, or racial segregation, or slavery, or burning witches is all COMMON SENSE to the people of the time it takes place.
Or take it the other way round - drug and alcohol prohibition, loose gun laws, treating corporations as persons...
Hunger Games on the other hand requires, DEMANDS, that we accept an economic and REASONABLE explanation for the districts.
THEN it demands that we accept that the problem is actually "crazy-mad rulers".
I.e. The system is FINE. It's just being run badly.
See... if we just get some of that glitz and technology to the districts, they'll be able to do their manual labor much more efficiently and thereby enjoy their startrekian technology which has no need for their manual labor... wait... umm... republic... freedom... stuff...
"Fire is an oxidation caused by demons."
The world you are describing actually makes more sense.
E.g. Imagine a scene where Catpuss Everwobble finds out that all that shit that districts were producing is just being dumped into the ocean by robots.
I.e. That the technology shown everywhere in the capitol is actually used in every facet of that society and that hard manual labor of the districts really IS just punishment for insurrection.
"You were born not to be a slave Miss Everwobble, but to be punished for the sins of your species against the something or other represented by the capitol. Racial purity, freedom, government, economy, god... stuff. Fuckit... what was the theme of this story again?"
But that never happens. Because - imagining a working economy demands scientific reasoning.
Collins writes children's fantasy books.
The name Panem is itself a fucking allusion to Juvenal, who was denouncing Roman demagogues who used gladiatorial spectacles and welfare payments to pacify the masses.
Are you serious or just trolling?
Did you really buy into that bullshit that they've named their PAN-AMERICAN country after a tongue in cheek label for bad government and stupidity of people being governed?
Why not just call it Stupidia or Dumbfuckia? No... wait... I KNOW!
Circussia!
Get it?
It is both a fuckin allusion to that same critique of governing by appeasing the masses, it has a homophonic allusion to another GreatBigCountryTM with historically questionable governing policies BUT with the added twist of turning out to be "here" and not "there" (Readers will never see THAT coming...Hohoho!) AND unlike having your country be called Breadloafia calling it a RoundRingWallia has a certain RING to it...
Like it is an endless ring, or a covenant, or a symbol of a country surrounded on all sides by oceans or enemies, or a link in a chain, or a hollow thing, or a shackle...
Shit, you can write in layers upon layers of meaning and symbolism into that.
Any half decent READER could come up with it. Let alone a writer.
Trouble is Collins is not that good of a writer.
She is a writer of fantasy for children, based on other people's templates - i.e. ripping off other people's ideas.
She can churn out sequels of simple plot, but when it comes to making believable worlds or themes... she can only copy other people's work.
Which is why the main protagonist of Hunger Games is not the prime mover or the explorer of the story but a passive observer whose primary concern during a revolution (that she is a fucking symbol for) is will she fuck the baker or the candlestick maker.
It's a children's FANTASY book, porned-up for teenage girls. Any shit goes. Wizard did it.
I don't know why we're even talking about this.
Might as well examine the logic of magic in Harry Potter.
Quite so.
Also note the lack of uprisings and revolutions because Squiky Mookmook got voted out.
Then compare with reports from one of the actual or figurative wars USA wages, with "tributes" being killed off in hundreds and thousands.
Note the complete lack of interest for other people's "tributes" and often great pride from friends and family when one of their own gets to be "tributed".
Get blown up by an IED or locked up by DEA - you're sure gonna make your homies proud.
Then, compare with Hunger Games where apparently people are SO FUCKING MOVED by random teenager No. 2567 and her fake romance that they tear down a tyranny they lived under from time immemorial.
She might have just as well dropped a glass slipper on her way to the dwarf compound in the forest and holed up in the tower until her hair grew to insane length.
It would be as cromulent a fairytale.
Eichmann and the pyramids are not really valid comparisons.
Both those cases ARE extension of the will of the god-ruler AND the cognitive dissonance accepted by the people.
Be it that their god-king really needs that huge thing for afterlife or that the Jews must be eliminated at all cost.
Not a punishment.
At the same time, Hunger Games tries really hard to make a point of it that the districts are actually needed for the goods they produce.
I.e. That it is some kind of an economic necessity to keep the districts poor and hungry in order to keep the capitol rich and fat.
On top of it all, the premise of the games is... ridiculous.
Primarily as some kind of a deterrent and punishment - when the spectacle around it makes it into entertainment.
Seriously, even if it was a show only for the families of the contestants in order to torture them for some made up reason - THEY WOULD NOT CARE for most of the contestants.
There is no reason for anyone other than their immediate family AND MOST CERTAINLY anyone outside their district to care about anyone other than THEIR "tributes".
And if they would care - it would be only in a way that EVERYONE would still love the winner in the end.
Providing people with celebrities is NOT punishment.
Hunger Games are a shallow, not well thought through copy of Stephen King's lesser works supposedly crossed with the Minotaur myth only mostly not.
This is exactly the problem I had with reading the Hunger Games. Everything worked, except why would a society with hover cars and other advanced technology have need of the services of the districts?
Same thing - in reverse.
Richard K. Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs books.
It is constantly repeated that there is an oligarchy which "exploits" the "masses" in an economic, political or some other sense.
Trouble is... Everyone is practically immortal.
Sure... for SOME REASON it supposedly costs A LOT of money to get a new body... but... they have virtual worlds.
AND you get to improve your education and earn degrees in virtual.
AND they have colonies across the galaxy and extremely well paying jobs for the taking... yet there is squalor.
AND nearly anyone actually CAN afford to get a new body, but not on a daily basis like the rich.
There are wars... which again don't make sense as everyone is quite happy to nuke people but somehow they still fight using infantry.
Only ACTUAL oppression of the "masses" taking place comes from within the people themselves - through religious rules which prevent people from getting a new body after death.
Which, again, is a self-limiting process - but instead of religions dying out in couple of centuries, their proponents are allowed to become more extreme and push their own dogma onto everyone else AND they increase in number.
And then there are other things that crop up which keep making it all rather implausible even with all the magical technology they have at hand, left by the Martian dei ex machinae.
Like how anything ever gets done with all that fucking AND virtual worlds AND holoporn.
...and it's on drugs. And it has a fake Hungarian passport to its name.
...the choice of target.
There are certain people out there willing to kill certain people out there for no money at all.
For bonus points, have the bot convince random people that it is a teenage girl, THEN get them to "off someone" in exchange for sexual favors.
Oldest "girl" with most kills wins.
It's OK. Turing would approve.
I know that from watching that Cabbagepatch movie.
I'm pretty sure that for any spreading of civilization a LOT of fucking will be of vital importance.
Machines don't constitute civilizations and clones are more like really elaborate fan clubs.
Sure, artificial insemination IS possible but that's the same result but without all the fun.
And the civilization that rejects fun is a dull and eventually dead civilization.
So... Fucking.
A LOT of it.
I like the bit where running a space transport company with long term cargo, people and fuel transporting plans and goals, including but not limited to resupplying the ISS is equated with "shoot[ing] endangered animals on [a] safari".
Why not just call Musk an apartheid-lovin fascist nazi-commie from South-WeHateBlackPeople-Africa?
would never have written such drivel.
It's not SUCH drivel. It's drivel of another kind.
He "figured out" that if you can afford to live anywhere in the world - you kinda stop caring about things like borders and flags.
I.e. He figured out that it is good to be rich. Whether through personal wealth or by being born in a wealthy society which can afford to be technologically advanced.
Trouble with his "realization" lies around the fact that people have a tendency and even need towards living in and being a part of a group of some kind.
So even should most people reject nationalities as defining criteria, they will still flock to something which will provide them with positive identity image cheaply and readily.
And while being an Apple, Ford or Pepsi man MIGHT be relatively cheap and is an identity that gets advertised readily - none of those can hold a candle to a little flag waving at a sports event or at some other government sponsored achievement. Like landing a man or a piece of machinery on the Moon.
Not to mention all those instances of flag waving during other positive events through the history.
It's not the money or the technology or the lack of that creates the borders.
People will flock to a rag on a pole and march to a ditty because it is a lot EASIER than acquiring a personal identity of their own.
Going with the flow is easy and relaxing.
People start reading that tweet and their associations light up before they are through (cold, snow, shopping - Jesus) and they expect to read it's about Jesus but then suddenly - SNAP!
It ain't.
Then they realize at about the same time that what they are reading IS true and that their prejudice caused them to be wrong about such a trivial thing.
That's when the E (as in ego) comes in, and the following train of emotionally loaded thoughts rushes through their minds:
"That ain't fair. I WAS right. He changed the rules. It was SUPPOSED to be about Jesus. I can't be wrong! I'm smart and shit! He's making fun of me. But he can't be making fun of ME - cause I WAS right and I AM smart. HE MUST BE MAKING FUN OF JESUS!!!111eleven! HE'S CALLING JESUS AN ASSHOLE AND SAYING THAT CHRISTMAS IS BULLSHIT!"
They are not actually thinking all that.
It's purely an unconscious thing, with only the final result floating up to their conscious mind.
Their minds are offering them a way out of feeling embarrassed about their own fault, by being angry about someone else's perceived fault.
It's a defense mechanism.
It's the same thing as being angry at spilled milk (or the container it came in) instead of crying over being clumsy.
It hurts less when your problem is someone else's fault.
I find your joke unpalletable.
His statements in TFA are a collection of fallacies and nonsense.
Navel gazing until you start seeing the world through your own ass is not art. Ask any proctologist.
"Human beings are unable to return to the unspoiled living environment of the past, and have become victims of their own endeavors. In the biblical time, Noah's Ark is the last resort for humans to escape from the termination of the world. However, if Noah's Ark sinks, where is the hope of the human race? If Noah's Ark, a symbol of mankind salvation, becomes just as a shipwreck, human and nonhuman were placed in an equal position. Human subject is losing his predominance as the supreme center of the world." ...
"It is certain that, no matter what circumstance will turn out, there will certainly be a disaster beforehand," explains Peng. "Destruction and construction always grow and demise together. We will once again encounter the problem of moral degeneration."
And the author of the article seems to be in the same category of faux-thinkers.
It depicts a time when the Anthropocene period (a period when human activities have/had significant global impact on Earthâ(TM)s ecosystems), is replaced by the Mechanocene period when machinery begins taking over some of the jobs.
Last time someone made fun of North Korea and its leaders exactly nothing happened.
Same with demonizing them as "invadorz" instead of Chinese.
Or that time James Bond fought a North Korean villain who made himself into a rich and powerful white man.
In fact... Last time anyone actually went out and committed a terrorist attack killing a bunch of people in a a theater - it was a crazy, white, male, American. With store and online bought guns.
And the movie was kept in theaters despite the bodycount.
Why?
Cause it was a final sequel of a very successful franchise whose last movie made over a billion dollars.
In other words...
Corporations have brass balls when gold is on the line.
And again... If they can't really cover a mere 18000 targets...
What good are they? Along with all the other "terrorist fighting" measures?
Trillions of dollars and unquantifiable liberties went up in smoke - and 18000 theaters turns out to be "too much"?
Maybe they should think outside the box on this one? Or more like inside a different kind of a box.
Maybe what's needed is a better kind of a theater? A safe and secure kind, where nothing bad can happen.
We can call it Security Theater.
They modeled the thing for ALL of the open sea being turned into bubbles.
It's not happening.
Geo-engineering is not the magic bullet.
Nor do we have it, the gun to fire it from, the target to shoot it at and on top of it all we don't know how to shoot the said gun nor on which side of the gun do bullets go in and on which side of it do they come out.