The interesting question to me about this is always how much of a Church's revenue flows back out as social works.
It depends on the church. My church gives almost all of the tithes to the poor. Pat Robertson's, otoh, probably gives very little if any; those $4000 suits and $500 ties he wears and $70,000 cars he drives cuts into the kitty.
Personally, I feel that churches tend to be over-rated as charities.
Some are, some aren't.
I see a lot of charities that put my money to better use than our church committee can.
Your sample of one contradicts my sample of one. Right now I have half a dozen torrents uploading, most of them Linux distros, one of them a book I wrote. The only illegal DLs I've done in years is media I already have in analog format (Star Trek).
A torrent of Star Wreck (legal) is far faster than a download from their site. That's what torrents are for, regardless of the material's legality. I can use a steak knife for its intended purpose, or I can stab you with it. But I'd hate for them to outlaw any useful tool that's designed and built for legal purposes, even if it can be used illegally. Zig Zags are legal, even though more people use them for rolling joints than rolling cigarettes.
How can you tell how much money I drop in the red kettle at Christmas, how much I drop in the collection bag at church, how many ones I give to beggars? You can't. There's someone in town that drops a Krugerand in the Sally's kettle every Christmas here in Springfield, nobody knows who (s)he is. Conservative or liberal? There's no way to tell.
The only way to count charity is by charitable deductions, and I'd posit that a tax dodge is NOT charity. I never take a charity deduction. Remember, "So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full." Folks who read their bibles try to give secretly. And considering that conservatives favor a whole slew of things that Jesus actively preached against, I doubt many of them actually read the bibles they thump.
Seek medical attention right away if any of these SEVERE side effects occur when using Albuterol: Severe allergic reactions (rash; hives; itching; difficulty breathing; tightness in the chest; swelling of the mouth, face, lips, or tongue); chest pain; ear pain; fast or irregular heartbeat; new or worsened trouble breathing; pounding in the chest; red, swollen, blistered, or peeling skin; severe headache or dizziness; unusual hoarseness; wheezing.
This is not a complete list of all side effects that may occur.
If you don't have the time to cook this simple meal
It's not just the time to cook it, it's the time to drive to the grocery store, shop (and they lay out stores in such a way that it takes the most amount of time to shop, so you'll have more of a chance to buy something not on your list), wait in the checkout line, drive home, and put all the stuff away. That takes more time than most of the actual cooking.
I don't have an iPhone, but my phone has a speech recognition "feature" I wish I could remove. There's a button on the side that makes the phone loudly say "please say a command". It almost NEVER understands the command.
"Call Mike". "Did you say 'call Mom'?" "CALL MIKE!" "Did you say 'call Mary'?" "CALL MIKE YOU GODDAMNED WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT!!!" "I'm sorry, I didn't understand that command."
Meanwhile, since it's a flip phone and I keep it in my pocket, I'm in a meeting with the boss and the god damned phone shouts "PLEASE SAY A COMMAND!"
Irrelevant. Patents are not meant to recoup investments.
No, they're not. They're meant to encourage investment (in time, money, skill, and creativity), and if you can't recoup your investment, how encouraging is that?
There's a confusing typo in there. Did you mean "they release no specs you could write, too" or "they release no specs you could write to"? Easy typo to makebut a bit confusing to read.
The majority of the people that work at the FDA either worked for the companies they regulate in the past, or will work for them after they leave the FDA
Well, if I were running a drug comapny I would want someone who knows the ins and outs of the bureaucracy, and if I were running a regulatory agency I'd want to hire someone who knows the ins and outs of the industry.
Why don't they regulate "Supplements"?
Because the law doesn't allow them to. That's not the FDA's fault, that's your legislator's fault.
Why do they regulate so many rudimentary anti-inflammatory drugs that have no addictive properties at all?
Because too much aspirin or too much Naproxin Sodium can eat a hole in your intestine wall, and too much acetominaphin (which I don't know how to spell) can ruin your liver. A better question is why they're not regulating addictive drugs like alcohol and tobacco. Of course the reason is because they're regulated by the ATF (which I think should be abolished).
Why can I get enough Tylenol at a gas station to kill 10 people but my asthma inhaler I need a prescription for?
Because the asthma inhaler has steroids, and steroids can do a LOT of things to really fuck you up real good; for instance, steroid eyedrops will give you cataracts (I found this out when I was prescribed them for an eye infection and wound up getting cataract surgery in that eye as a result; it was the eye doctor that told me the steroids caused the cataract).
Get rid of the FDA and you're going to see a hell of a lot more worthless snake oil on the market, which is why the FDA was started in the first place.
Does the tinfoil hat work best shiny side in or shiny side out?
It wreaked your computer? And I thought I had fat fingerz! But I did find one line in the spam you parody to be hilarious: "How could this happen? My anti-virus is supposed to be second to none!" So... if you have no AV, that's better than your AV? No wonder you got pwned!
Would you buy an AV product on the advice of someone who was pwned so easily? I'm having a hard time figuring out if the GP was spam or just an idiot trying to be funny.
What copyright really needs is a return to an opt-in system: unpublished works (where publication is defined more broadly than at present) might have a minimal, relatively short-lived automatic copyright to protect authors from having their manuscripts pirated while they prepare a work for publication.
I agree, and that's how copyright used to be -- you didn't hold copyright if you didn't register. But why "not so trivial that it requires no thought at all"? IMO copyrights should be a easy to register as possible. BTW, have you tried registring a copyright online with the US Copyright Office? That has to be the least useable web site I've ever been to. So much that I'm registering my book by snail mail.
Rather than requiring yearly renewal until the time limit, which would make the process even slower (it's about six months now) and more costly to taxpayers, make it so that a year after the publication is out of print it becomes part of the public domain. That would also solve the problem of "orphan works".
I'd stay away from it because it has "Microsoft" and "Windows" in the name. I simply don't like the Windows Way. I don't want an OS or program to be friendly, I want it to be obediant. I want it to do what I want it to do and I want it to do it like I want, not how some developer wants. I don't want shiny if it means less workable.
Too bad they don't put the people who did Excel on their Windows team, Excel is actually the best spreadsheet out there.
SSRI may also increase your appetite, but one wouldn't suggest it as a cause.
I would. I was thin all my life until 2002 when my doctor prescribed Paxil. I gained 40 pounds. When I stopped taking it I lost almost all of the weight despite trying to keep it on.
It doesn't just increase your appetite, it slows your metabolism, so you'll burn fewer calories doing the same activities.
Just did the same, Mozilla is the second spot. Spot #5 says "You really can't go wrong with any Web browser choice these days. Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, and Safari, all are fast, standards..."
The thing is, if Google gives you bogus results they're going to lose your eyeballs; that's one of many things that makes Google superior to Bing. Bad search results hurt their bottom line, while Siri's answers aren't going to stop anybody from buying another iPhone.
Well, they are anonymous but I seriously doubt they're Anonymous. My guess would be the M.A.F.I.A.A. Remember the Sony rootkit? If they'll hack their own paying customers' computers wtf makes anybody think they wouldn't attack the Pirate Bay?
You look at the time line in question and it just so happens to be the same period that more single families replaced the nuclear family and those that have both are often both working their asses off.
Excellent point. There was a study reported last week that said the stress of commuting makes one fat, that those with longer commutes were heavier than those with short commutes. So they're going to stop by Burger King on their way home and pick up a few two pound whoppers for the family rather than cooking.
That said, both my parents worked and nobody in my family is overweight (but that's genetics).
People wince when they scrape their car, because in a very real sense they feel like they hit a part of themselves.
Bullshit. People wince when they scrape their cars because its resale value just dropped. You don't wince when you drop your screwdriver and it was part of your hand ten seconds earlier. You might wince if it breaks and you have to buy a new one. Nobody driving a beater cares if it gets another dent. Anyone whose identity depends on their car should be treated by a mental health professional, because that's just fucking crazy.
IMO, pharma patent laws should be modified to steer research into what's best for the people, not best for the shareholders. Drop the extended patent terms for anything that isn't curative.
You would have me suffer, because without patent law I wouldn't have Naproxin Sodium, a far better treatment for my arthritis than aspirin. You would have most cancer and HIV patients just die. Yes, a cure would be far better, but for some conditions a cure may be impossible at present levels of science.
Neither preservatives nor flavor enhancers cause obesity.
Flavor enhancers can, by getting you to eat more of it. Whenever I eat at D'Arcy's (best tasting food in town) I get so full it hurts. Good thing I have a fast metabolism.
medical science fiction is running out of subjects that are still fiction
Indeed, compared to a modern hospital, Dr. McCoy's sick bay looks downright primitive (I journaled about this a few years ago). Some things are beyond sci-fi today. For example, in Star Trek II, McCoy gives Kirk reading glasses because he's allergic to lens softeners (we still don't have that) but a CrystaLens implant will cure age related presbyopia, as well as myopia, astigatism, and cataracts -- bus they still haven't invented them in the Star Trek 23rd century.
A gall bladder operation used to leave a six inch scar and left you hospitalized for weeks. Now the scar's half an inch or less and you may have to stay hospitalized overnight.
FASTER PLEASE indeed! When I was a kid, medicine was downright primitive. They used ether as an anesthetic, it's a nightmare trip for the patient and incredibly dangerous; it's so flammable that it's used as automotive starting fluid. I had a surgery in 2002 and the anestesiologist said "ok, you're going to sleep now." I replied, "uh, it isn't working." He laughed and said "we're done!" No nightmare trip, no post surgical nausea (ether is sickening).
However, there is some science fiction medicine I hope they don't develop. I was reading a story the other day with a drug that makes your blood deadly to anyone but you. NOT a good innovation!
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The interesting question to me about this is always how much of a Church's revenue flows back out as social works.
It depends on the church. My church gives almost all of the tithes to the poor. Pat Robertson's, otoh, probably gives very little if any; those $4000 suits and $500 ties he wears and $70,000 cars he drives cuts into the kitty.
Personally, I feel that churches tend to be over-rated as charities.
Some are, some aren't.
I see a lot of charities that put my money to better use than our church committee can.
Maybe you should find a different church?
Your sample of one contradicts my sample of one. Right now I have half a dozen torrents uploading, most of them Linux distros, one of them a book I wrote. The only illegal DLs I've done in years is media I already have in analog format (Star Trek).
A torrent of Star Wreck (legal) is far faster than a download from their site. That's what torrents are for, regardless of the material's legality. I can use a steak knife for its intended purpose, or I can stab you with it. But I'd hate for them to outlaw any useful tool that's designed and built for legal purposes, even if it can be used illegally. Zig Zags are legal, even though more people use them for rolling joints than rolling cigarettes.
How can you tell how much money I drop in the red kettle at Christmas, how much I drop in the collection bag at church, how many ones I give to beggars? You can't. There's someone in town that drops a Krugerand in the Sally's kettle every Christmas here in Springfield, nobody knows who (s)he is. Conservative or liberal? There's no way to tell.
The only way to count charity is by charitable deductions, and I'd posit that a tax dodge is NOT charity. I never take a charity deduction. Remember, "So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full." Folks who read their bibles try to give secretly. And considering that conservatives favor a whole slew of things that Jesus actively preached against, I doubt many of them actually read the bibles they thump.
No, it's a Motorola. I emailed them, they replied that there's no way to shut it off.
A little googling shows albuterol can be pretty dangerous, too.
If you don't have the time to cook this simple meal
It's not just the time to cook it, it's the time to drive to the grocery store, shop (and they lay out stores in such a way that it takes the most amount of time to shop, so you'll have more of a chance to buy something not on your list), wait in the checkout line, drive home, and put all the stuff away. That takes more time than most of the actual cooking.
I don't have an iPhone, but my phone has a speech recognition "feature" I wish I could remove. There's a button on the side that makes the phone loudly say "please say a command". It almost NEVER understands the command.
"Call Mike".
"Did you say 'call Mom'?"
"CALL MIKE!"
"Did you say 'call Mary'?"
"CALL MIKE YOU GODDAMNED WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT!!!"
"I'm sorry, I didn't understand that command."
Meanwhile, since it's a flip phone and I keep it in my pocket, I'm in a meeting with the boss and the god damned phone shouts "PLEASE SAY A COMMAND!"
I need a new phone, I broke that one.
Oops, sorry, I hit the black flag by mistake. Thought you were the spammer again, when you were just parodying him.
Too bad that black flag won't kill the slashcode bugs...
Irrelevant. Patents are not meant to recoup investments.
No, they're not. They're meant to encourage investment (in time, money, skill, and creativity), and if you can't recoup your investment, how encouraging is that?
There's a confusing typo in there. Did you mean "they release no specs you could write, too" or "they release no specs you could write to"? Easy typo to makebut a bit confusing to read.
The majority of the people that work at the FDA either worked for the companies they regulate in the past, or will work for them after they leave the FDA
Well, if I were running a drug comapny I would want someone who knows the ins and outs of the bureaucracy, and if I were running a regulatory agency I'd want to hire someone who knows the ins and outs of the industry.
Why don't they regulate "Supplements"?
Because the law doesn't allow them to. That's not the FDA's fault, that's your legislator's fault.
Why do they regulate so many rudimentary anti-inflammatory drugs that have no addictive properties at all?
Because too much aspirin or too much Naproxin Sodium can eat a hole in your intestine wall, and too much acetominaphin (which I don't know how to spell) can ruin your liver. A better question is why they're not regulating addictive drugs like alcohol and tobacco. Of course the reason is because they're regulated by the ATF (which I think should be abolished).
Why can I get enough Tylenol at a gas station to kill 10 people but my asthma inhaler I need a prescription for?
Because the asthma inhaler has steroids, and steroids can do a LOT of things to really fuck you up real good; for instance, steroid eyedrops will give you cataracts (I found this out when I was prescribed them for an eye infection and wound up getting cataract surgery in that eye as a result; it was the eye doctor that told me the steroids caused the cataract).
Get rid of the FDA and you're going to see a hell of a lot more worthless snake oil on the market, which is why the FDA was started in the first place.
Does the tinfoil hat work best shiny side in or shiny side out?
It wreaked your computer? And I thought I had fat fingerz! But I did find one line in the spam you parody to be hilarious: "How could this happen? My anti-virus is supposed to be second to none!" So... if you have no AV, that's better than your AV? No wonder you got pwned!
Would you buy an AV product on the advice of someone who was pwned so easily? I'm having a hard time figuring out if the GP was spam or just an idiot trying to be funny.
What copyright really needs is a return to an opt-in system: unpublished works (where publication is defined more broadly than at present) might have a minimal, relatively short-lived automatic copyright to protect authors from having their manuscripts pirated while they prepare a work for publication.
I agree, and that's how copyright used to be -- you didn't hold copyright if you didn't register. But why "not so trivial that it requires no thought at all"? IMO copyrights should be a easy to register as possible. BTW, have you tried registring a copyright online with the US Copyright Office? That has to be the least useable web site I've ever been to. So much that I'm registering my book by snail mail.
Rather than requiring yearly renewal until the time limit, which would make the process even slower (it's about six months now) and more costly to taxpayers, make it so that a year after the publication is out of print it becomes part of the public domain. That would also solve the problem of "orphan works".
Infrared? Not exactly wi-fi. You'd have to be in the same room as the router for this to work. I don't see many practical applications.
I'd stay away from it because it has "Microsoft" and "Windows" in the name. I simply don't like the Windows Way. I don't want an OS or program to be friendly, I want it to be obediant. I want it to do what I want it to do and I want it to do it like I want, not how some developer wants. I don't want shiny if it means less workable.
Too bad they don't put the people who did Excel on their Windows team, Excel is actually the best spreadsheet out there.
SSRI may also increase your appetite, but one wouldn't suggest it as a cause.
I would. I was thin all my life until 2002 when my doctor prescribed Paxil. I gained 40 pounds. When I stopped taking it I lost almost all of the weight despite trying to keep it on.
It doesn't just increase your appetite, it slows your metabolism, so you'll burn fewer calories doing the same activities.
Just did the same, Mozilla is the second spot. Spot #5 says "You really can't go wrong with any Web browser choice these days. Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, and Safari, all are fast, standards ..."
The thing is, if Google gives you bogus results they're going to lose your eyeballs; that's one of many things that makes Google superior to Bing. Bad search results hurt their bottom line, while Siri's answers aren't going to stop anybody from buying another iPhone.
Well, they are anonymous but I seriously doubt they're Anonymous. My guess would be the M.A.F.I.A.A. Remember the Sony rootkit? If they'll hack their own paying customers' computers wtf makes anybody think they wouldn't attack the Pirate Bay?
If you're pissing off your customers, your business model is pretty damned weak.
You look at the time line in question and it just so happens to be the same period that more single families replaced the nuclear family and those that have both are often both working their asses off.
Excellent point. There was a study reported last week that said the stress of commuting makes one fat, that those with longer commutes were heavier than those with short commutes. So they're going to stop by Burger King on their way home and pick up a few two pound whoppers for the family rather than cooking.
That said, both my parents worked and nobody in my family is overweight (but that's genetics).
People wince when they scrape their car, because in a very real sense they feel like they hit a part of themselves.
Bullshit. People wince when they scrape their cars because its resale value just dropped. You don't wince when you drop your screwdriver and it was part of your hand ten seconds earlier. You might wince if it breaks and you have to buy a new one. Nobody driving a beater cares if it gets another dent. Anyone whose identity depends on their car should be treated by a mental health professional, because that's just fucking crazy.
IMO, pharma patent laws should be modified to steer research into what's best for the people, not best for the shareholders. Drop the extended patent terms for anything that isn't curative.
You would have me suffer, because without patent law I wouldn't have Naproxin Sodium, a far better treatment for my arthritis than aspirin. You would have most cancer and HIV patients just die. Yes, a cure would be far better, but for some conditions a cure may be impossible at present levels of science.
Considering what the MBAs have done to the economy, I don't think I'd brag about having one.
Neither preservatives nor flavor enhancers cause obesity.
Flavor enhancers can, by getting you to eat more of it. Whenever I eat at D'Arcy's (best tasting food in town) I get so full it hurts. Good thing I have a fast metabolism.
medical science fiction is running out of subjects that are still fiction
Indeed, compared to a modern hospital, Dr. McCoy's sick bay looks downright primitive (I journaled about this a few years ago). Some things are beyond sci-fi today. For example, in Star Trek II, McCoy gives Kirk reading glasses because he's allergic to lens softeners (we still don't have that) but a CrystaLens implant will cure age related presbyopia, as well as myopia, astigatism, and cataracts -- bus they still haven't invented them in the Star Trek 23rd century.
A gall bladder operation used to leave a six inch scar and left you hospitalized for weeks. Now the scar's half an inch or less and you may have to stay hospitalized overnight.
FASTER PLEASE indeed! When I was a kid, medicine was downright primitive. They used ether as an anesthetic, it's a nightmare trip for the patient and incredibly dangerous; it's so flammable that it's used as automotive starting fluid. I had a surgery in 2002 and the anestesiologist said "ok, you're going to sleep now." I replied, "uh, it isn't working." He laughed and said "we're done!" No nightmare trip, no post surgical nausea (ether is sickening).
However, there is some science fiction medicine I hope they don't develop. I was reading a story the other day with a drug that makes your blood deadly to anyone but you. NOT a good innovation!