Why does it matter what the percentage is? It's not like there is a formula that says 1 kcal equals x cubic cm of tissue anyway...
Especially when you consider the method used to arrive at the "energy value" of food is nothing like the chemical processes mammals use to digest and metabolise anything...
The point is that having muscle instead of fat is usually healthier and looks better even if your weight isn't going down.
As determined by BMI it's perfectly possible for athletes to be considered "obese".
No, I don't agree. We don't confiscate people's drivers licenses _before_ we prove that they ignore red lights. We do that afterwards
People get pulled over by the cops for driving badly all the time.
And even then, we give them an ID card as the license has more uses than just for driving.
Abusing a machine operators permit is a whole other can of worms. Where this analogy breaks down is that the case in question concerns the activities of a commercial company rather than an individual.
THIS is the sort of piracy that the RIAA (and member companies) should fight against. THIS is the sort of piracy that I think any intelligent human being opposes. THIS is the sort of copyright violation that the laws were written to combat.
Also the sort of situation where having an ISP/hosting provider cut off someone's connection probably is appropriate. Assuming that there is a mechanism such as a court injunctiion involved.
Well, 110V is too much for everyday electronics, too. Fact is, the voltage standards have nothing to do with appliances or electronics. Most of the world chose 220V over 110V due to reduced transmission costs.
Transmission generally uses a considerably higher voltage.
They can get away with a smaller diameter wire to transmit the same amount of power. After WW2, they had to string up a LOT of wire when copper was none too cheap.
The UK was already on a higher voltage prior to 1939. The other major difference is that the US style system uses a lot more transformers each with a 110-0-110 secondary. Whereas the UK system uses larger transformers which output 230V three phase (400V between any two phases), delivered via either overhead wires or underground cable.
This really depends on a lot of things. The age of the house, the local electric code, the work ethic of the electrician doing the job, and so on. The house that I bought three years ago was built in the 1940's and had only main breakers: one for the upstairs and one for the downstairs and basement. All of the other breakers were for things like the water heater, fridge, stove, furnace, AC, etc. (For the record, I've never seen an average-sized house with 30-40 separate circuits.)
I would imagine the situation is much the same in the U.K. Chances are pretty good that new developments in every developed country have better wiring practices than decades before. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if the modern U.K. electrical code is much MORE stringent than most US codes are, owing to their world-class bureaucracy.
The US is also likely to be rather more diverse in terms of electrical codes, AFAIK due to it not being up the the Federal Government to regulate such things.
Distracted driving occurs because of a lack of training and understanding regarding the operation of a motor vehicle. The correct solution is more stringent examinations and training before getting a driver's license -- training that will impress upon drivers the importance of what they are doing:
It's also probably a bad idea to let children drive at all.
In this country, however, we have a sense of entitlement about driving. We allow people convicted of drunk driving two, five, or even twenty times to retain their license.
Possibly without even a retest.
And then we impliment stupid policy decisions like stripping people of their license for failing to pay child support or taxes as punitive measures.
Even dafter using the thing as proof of ID for a whole set of activities which have little to do with driving, even some which are (or at least should be) mutually exclusive with driving.
Secondly, people should be required as a condition of holding that certificate, to take refresher courses on driving and their vehicle should be subjected to regular inspections.
Include a driving test as part of these "refresher courses".
Let us take that case that got the Toyota floormat recall started, the Lexus that was going 120MPH on a San Diego freeway before it crashed. The car was driven by an off-duty CHP patrol officer and vehicle safety inspector. He was highly trained in offensive and defensive driving tactics.
The driver would presumably have applied the brakes as well as attempting to select neutral and turn off the engine. Yet the car managed to reach a speed well in excess of that anyone would drive. Sounds like more that just the throttle control is an issue here.
I have to say that the decline in manual transmission driving has really diminished people's driving abilities. It's one thing that the there's an acceleration issue. It's another thing to not consider putting the car in neutral when something like this is encountered.
There's also a clutch which can separate the engine from the transmission:)
And that's a great example of why you should never talk to the cops. EVER.
It's not their job to be fair. It's their job to get you to say something incriminating. Functionally, it's the cops' job to "aid and abet" the prosecutors' office in getting innocent people convicted.
It can also be of benefit to both individual police officers and their police force/department to inflate charges in such a way. "Felony Commercial Burglary" sounds a lot more impressive than "Petty Theft from a supermarket". (Even if the charges are later dropped or the accused found not guilty in court.)
Anyone who says different, is a clueless idealistic moron. You have the 5th amendment right to keep your mouth shut for a reason: NEVER say anything to the cops.
There is a difference, though. A mod chip simply affects what you can do with your own hardware, while a hacked cable modem allows theft of bandwidth (yes, theft is the proper word here). It's little different than hacking your eletric meter or water meter.
A utility meter isn't "yours" it belongs to the electricity, water, gas, etc supplier (or to someone acting on their behalf). If a cable modem is supplied in a similar way then the same issue of tampering would apply. If it's your device, even if you bought it from the cable company, then things are very different.
It's not "We need to respect our constitution, even if it makes our security agencies do a little more work.".
Or possibly less work. Since with effective oversight such activities will tend to remain "on target".
It's "We need to respect our constitution, even if some of us die".
There's no actual evidence that increased government snooping makes things safer. Worst case senario is that it makes things less safe, but faith that it increases safety results in a positive feedback loop.
I don't actually believe that these methods save lives in the long run.
Or even in the short term. Indeed can anyone point to an example of authoritarian shift in government increasing public safety.
I think that these people underestimate the real, physical risks of making enemies and losing the moral high ground.
There's also the issue of making "friends" with some very questionable people, which tends to go hand in hand with enemy making. The US currently has all sorts of "foreign entanglements", with extreme reluctance on the part of current politicians to get rid of them. In spite of the advice of both Jefferson and Washington.
We really need a "none of the above" option when voting. I would expect massive voter turnout, and after a few elections with no winners good candidates would be forced to step up to end the disruption of their own lives.
For that you'd need a "hard" NOTA, which disqualifies all candidates (except NOTA) from restanding.
Looking at old presidential portraits back in high school, I noted that quite a few of our earlier presidents had rather distinctive facial features in common, which are almost never seen anymore. Some of them were not only downright ugly by modern standards, but looked downright creepy. Now, I'll admit a few of them just may have had bad portraits, but there were too many of them for that alone to be the issue.
Portraits are not photographs. There are also fashion trends amongst artists as well as what is considered the "right look" for a certain kind of person.
I also find it almost impossible to believe that the differences are due to things like plastic surgery, since some of those feature's I've never seen on a real person, except when they had significant hollywood makeup applied to artificially create that feature.
Moreover, 2 cm and 1 kg is not a huge difference! You are about a centimeter shorter at the end of the day than you are at the beginning. 1 kg extra weight isn't "fat" either.
How much does someone's weight vary over the day? Especially after activities such as eating, drinking and using the toilet...
STASI and Gestapo actually had the same problem: They were able to acquire huge amounts of data (due to many agents, public co-operation, etc.) but they were nowhere near being able to actually analyze it.
To the extent that the STASI apparently weren't aware that their state as about the cease to exist.
They just didn't have the manpower to go through even half their data.
The same issue has been brought up in the context of 9/11.
That was before computers.
Computers are not magical and can easily generate false positives in cases no human would.
I'd like to know why these people aren't arrested, if they're so dangerous? Shouldn't the list be provided to the owners of other transit systems, shopping centres etc? Or have these people been shown to only be interested in performing terrorist activities on planes?
Bruce Schneier commented on this some years ago. That it was incredible that someone could be both so innocent that they couldn't be arrested and so dangerous that they couldn't be allowed near a commercial airliner.
Do you think actual terrorists fly under their real name? Yeh, I believe in Santa Claus, too.
If the feds are as good as Homeland Security or the TSA, the terrorists have nothing to fear.
No doubt terrorists supported by the US Government fly under their own names (even if the US Taxpayer didn't buy their ticket). Similarly terrorists which the US (along with other "Western") governments are indifferent to probably have little to fear.
Let's not through due process out the window just yet. And I doubt that the Feds believe that those 9% are all actual terrorists, just people who may have links to some terrorist organization or other, and thereby deserve special attention.
Most likely connections with terrorist orgs the US Government considers to be "enemy". If you added terrorists groups the US Government supports (as well as those they are indifferent to) you'd have virtually 100% of US Citizens and residents having "links to terrorism".
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Why does it matter what the percentage is? It's not like there is a formula that says 1 kcal equals x cubic cm of tissue anyway...
Especially when you consider the method used to arrive at the "energy value" of food is nothing like the chemical processes mammals use to digest and metabolise anything...
The point is that having muscle instead of fat is usually healthier and looks better even if your weight isn't going down.
As determined by BMI it's perfectly possible for athletes to be considered "obese".
No, I don't agree. We don't confiscate people's drivers licenses _before_ we prove that they ignore red lights. We do that afterwards
People get pulled over by the cops for driving badly all the time.
And even then, we give them an ID card as the license has more uses than just for driving.
Abusing a machine operators permit is a whole other can of worms.
Where this analogy breaks down is that the case in question concerns the activities of a commercial company rather than an individual.
THIS is the sort of piracy that the RIAA (and member companies) should fight against. THIS is the sort of piracy that I think any intelligent human being opposes. THIS is the sort of copyright violation that the laws were written to combat.
/hosting provider cut off someone's connection probably is appropriate. Assuming that there is a mechanism such as a court injunctiion involved.
Also the sort of situation where having an ISP
I've long suggested the option to vote against a candidate instead of for one, that would be a variation on preferential voting.
:)
For one thing it dosn't give people with the mentality of con artists an advantage
The Canadians have their blank CD tax ostensibly because blank CDs are used to copy music. Great. But is it then legal to copy music in Canada? No.
Unless the music isn't for sale in Canada. Though this is more due to the Canadian judiciary being relativly sane than anything else.
How does that even work?!
More money for the (big) record companies.
Also, why on earth do the US only use 2 phases of 3 for the "heavy" stuff?? That would be a huge imbalance on the 3 phase power.
The US has both regular 3 phase (120 degree difference) and 2 phase from a centre tapped transformer.
Well, 110V is too much for everyday electronics, too. Fact is, the voltage standards have nothing to do with appliances or electronics. Most of the world chose 220V over 110V due to reduced transmission costs.
Transmission generally uses a considerably higher voltage.
They can get away with a smaller diameter wire to transmit the same amount of power. After WW2, they had to string up a LOT of wire when copper was none too cheap.
The UK was already on a higher voltage prior to 1939.
The other major difference is that the US style system uses a lot more transformers each with a 110-0-110 secondary. Whereas the UK system uses larger transformers which output 230V three phase (400V between any two phases), delivered via either overhead wires or underground cable.
This really depends on a lot of things. The age of the house, the local electric code, the work ethic of the electrician doing the job, and so on. The house that I bought three years ago was built in the 1940's and had only main breakers: one for the upstairs and one for the downstairs and basement. All of the other breakers were for things like the water heater, fridge, stove, furnace, AC, etc. (For the record, I've never seen an average-sized house with 30-40 separate circuits.)
I would imagine the situation is much the same in the U.K. Chances are pretty good that new developments in every developed country have better wiring practices than decades before. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if the modern U.K. electrical code is much MORE stringent than most US codes are, owing to their world-class bureaucracy.
The US is also likely to be rather more diverse in terms of electrical codes, AFAIK due to it not being up the the Federal Government to regulate such things.
Distracted driving occurs because of a lack of training and understanding regarding the operation of a motor vehicle. The correct solution is more stringent examinations and training before getting a driver's license -- training that will impress upon drivers the importance of what they are doing:
It's also probably a bad idea to let children drive at all.
In this country, however, we have a sense of entitlement about driving. We allow people convicted of drunk driving two, five, or even twenty times to retain their license.
Possibly without even a retest.
And then we impliment stupid policy decisions like stripping people of their license for failing to pay child support or taxes as punitive measures.
Even dafter using the thing as proof of ID for a whole set of activities which have little to do with driving, even some which are (or at least should be) mutually exclusive with driving.
Secondly, people should be required as a condition of holding that certificate, to take refresher courses on driving and their vehicle should be subjected to regular inspections.
Include a driving test as part of these "refresher courses".
Obama is a politician. This is what professional politicians do.
Thing is that even an "honest" professional politician will soon end up out of touch withe the public.
As Douglas Adams wisely told us, no one who wants to be president should ever be allowed to become the president.
He also said that even though people hate the lizards they keep voting for them so the "wrong lizard" dosn't get in...
Let us take that case that got the Toyota floormat recall started, the Lexus that was going 120MPH on a San Diego freeway before it crashed. The car was driven by an off-duty CHP patrol officer and vehicle safety inspector. He was highly trained in offensive and defensive driving tactics.
The driver would presumably have applied the brakes as well as attempting to select neutral and turn off the engine. Yet the car managed to reach a speed well in excess of that anyone would drive. Sounds like more that just the throttle control is an issue here.
I have to say that the decline in manual transmission driving has really diminished people's driving abilities. It's one thing that the there's an acceleration issue. It's another thing to not consider putting the car in neutral when something like this is encountered.
:)
There's also a clutch which can separate the engine from the transmission
I've always been struck by the system of justice in the US where, if you plead guilty, you "save the state the cost of a trial".
The actual point of a trial, regardless of what certain political groups might claim, is to protect the accused.
In most countries where the law is based on English Common Law (Canada, UK, Australia, etc) there is always a trial
In the UK there is something called a "police caution" which is a guilty plea made to police and shows up as being a conviction.
And that's a great example of why you should never talk to the cops. EVER.
It's not their job to be fair. It's their job to get you to say something incriminating. Functionally, it's the cops' job to "aid and abet" the prosecutors' office in getting innocent people convicted.
It can also be of benefit to both individual police officers and their police force/department to inflate charges in such a way. "Felony Commercial Burglary" sounds a lot more impressive than "Petty Theft from a supermarket". (Even if the charges are later dropped or the accused found not guilty in court.)
Anyone who says different, is a clueless idealistic moron. You have the 5th amendment right to keep your mouth shut for a reason: NEVER say anything to the cops.
At least not without consulting a lawyer first...
There is a difference, though. A mod chip simply affects what you can do with your own hardware, while a hacked cable modem allows theft of bandwidth (yes, theft is the proper word here). It's little different than hacking your eletric meter or water meter.
A utility meter isn't "yours" it belongs to the electricity, water, gas, etc supplier (or to someone acting on their behalf). If a cable modem is supplied in a similar way then the same issue of tampering would apply. If it's your device, even if you bought it from the cable company, then things are very different.
Probably as soon as he tries to steal broadband lol. That or if he changes his name to Osama Bin Hackin.
:)
Will that be before or after his name is changed to "Emmanuel Bin Laden" or "Osama Goldstein"
It's not "We need to respect our constitution, even if it makes our security agencies do a little more work.".
Or possibly less work. Since with effective oversight such activities will tend to remain "on target".
It's "We need to respect our constitution, even if some of us die".
There's no actual evidence that increased government snooping makes things safer. Worst case senario is that it makes things less safe, but faith that it increases safety results in a positive feedback loop.
I don't actually believe that these methods save lives in the long run.
Or even in the short term. Indeed can anyone point to an example of authoritarian shift in government increasing public safety.
I think that these people underestimate the real, physical risks of making enemies and losing the moral high ground.
There's also the issue of making "friends" with some very questionable people, which tends to go hand in hand with enemy making. The US currently has all sorts of "foreign entanglements", with extreme reluctance on the part of current politicians to get rid of them. In spite of the advice of both Jefferson and Washington.
We really need a "none of the above" option when voting. I would expect massive voter turnout, and after a few elections with no winners good candidates would be forced to step up to end the disruption of their own lives.
For that you'd need a "hard" NOTA, which disqualifies all candidates (except NOTA) from restanding.
I got my new state's driver's license, and specifically checked "No" for the "Do you want to register to vote"
You need to be able to drive to vote? About the only thing dafter is only selling alcohol to drivers.
Looking at old presidential portraits back in high school, I noted that quite a few of our earlier presidents had rather distinctive facial features in common, which are almost never seen anymore. Some of them were not only downright ugly by modern standards, but looked downright creepy. Now, I'll admit a few of them just may have had bad portraits, but there were too many of them for that alone to be the issue.
Portraits are not photographs. There are also fashion trends amongst artists as well as what is considered the "right look" for a certain kind of person.
I also find it almost impossible to believe that the differences are due to things like plastic surgery, since some of those feature's I've never seen on a real person, except when they had significant hollywood makeup applied to artificially create that feature.
Maybe they have never existed on actual humans...
Moreover, 2 cm and 1 kg is not a huge difference! You are about a centimeter shorter at the end of the day than you are at the beginning. 1 kg extra weight isn't "fat" either.
How much does someone's weight vary over the day? Especially after activities such as eating, drinking and using the toilet...
STASI and Gestapo actually had the same problem: They were able to acquire huge amounts of data (due to many agents, public co-operation, etc.) but they were nowhere near being able to actually analyze it.
To the extent that the STASI apparently weren't aware that their state as about the cease to exist.
They just didn't have the manpower to go through even half their data.
The same issue has been brought up in the context of 9/11.
That was before computers.
Computers are not magical and can easily generate false positives in cases no human would.
Aren't considered a possible threat to aviation.
Yet ironically people who have attacked other passengers and/or aircrew members don't get an automatic place on the list.
I'd like to know why these people aren't arrested, if they're so dangerous? Shouldn't the list be provided to the owners of other transit systems, shopping centres etc? Or have these people been shown to only be interested in performing terrorist activities on planes?
Bruce Schneier commented on this some years ago. That it was incredible that someone could be both so innocent that they couldn't be arrested and so dangerous that they couldn't be allowed near a commercial airliner.
Do you think actual terrorists fly under their real name? Yeh, I believe in Santa Claus, too. If the feds are as good as Homeland Security or the TSA, the terrorists have nothing to fear.
No doubt terrorists supported by the US Government fly under their own names (even if the US Taxpayer didn't buy their ticket). Similarly terrorists which the US (along with other "Western") governments are indifferent to probably have little to fear.
Let's not through due process out the window just yet. And I doubt that the Feds believe that those 9% are all actual terrorists, just people who may have links to some terrorist organization or other, and thereby deserve special attention.
Most likely connections with terrorist orgs the US Government considers to be "enemy". If you added terrorists groups the US Government supports (as well as those they are indifferent to) you'd have virtually 100% of US Citizens and residents having "links to terrorism".