My wife and I went to a local white-trash small town fair the other day and were astounded by how fat kids & teenagers have gotten recently. 20 years ago, the fat kids in class would get mocked out rather cruelly and relentlessly. While being mean to people isn't cool, it does provide a strong "negative reinforcement" feedback on their pizza-and-Dorito-downing behavior.

Now, kids are all taught from a young age how "special" and "wonderful" they are (thanks, Barney), and few of them are too acquainted with shame (or much physical activity it seems).

Just a small final thought... One thing that always irks me about statistics like these is that the "obesity definition" has changed over time as well-- it's been liberalized to declare more people fat. I have no doubt that people ARE truly fatter (like the kids I saw), but when the gov't bureaucrats tinker with definitions of arbitrary terms ("the poverty line" is another example) to meet an agenda, you never know how much to trust them...

Straight talk from Sid.

Mad Max IV!

What a retard.

Oh, a couple thoughts:

1. It's amusing that a religiously-minded business would call itself "In-N-Out" anything! I guess they didn't understand the double entendre...

2. It's their business to run as they choose! If you are bothered by their message, don't patronize them. If you like them, you should give them extra business! Vote with your wallet!

Straight talk from Sid!

Wow, that is pretty geeky! Not only does it require the reader to understand a little bit about Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, but they have to know who Phillipp Lenard was and also what "Weißer Jude" means and why Heisenberg would be called that (especially since he wasn't Jewish). It would do well in a gatheirng of historically minded physicists who know a little German. Yow. This guy isn't looking to replace Dilbert in the Sunday Funnies anytime soon, I hope.

Straight talk from Sid.

I'm totally in agreement with Jerrt. Being an architect is much more than just being a creative artist (which Wright arguably was); they must also understand building sciences and structural engineering. Wright ignored these aspects of his trade and as a result, his buildings have been a nightmare to conserve over just the few decades since they have been built. "Fallingdownwater" is just the most notorious example, but there are others.

Yes, Wright "pushed the envelope", but he went well beyond the limits of the day's technology. This wasn't a surprise either -- there have been brilliantly skilled architects for hundreds of years who knew how to design beautiful structures that also lasted without crazily extraordinary preservation measures 20 years after they were built. Wright's creations are akin to many of the "concept cars" shown at autoshows. These are often built to look good, but not hold up in the real world or be strictly functional -- they are styling exercises and nothing more. When they are occasionally brought to production, there are always a myriad of engineering changes. If Wright's creations had been branded "concept buildings" that would be one thing, but instead they were real commissions from real clients.

Straight talk from Sid.

Well, yeah, I guess it isn't much use to have just one -- if that is really why you are buying it! But people will be buying this because it is a rare surviving bit of WWII history. If all you want to do is pass coded messages, you can do that much more securely now with free 128-bit (or more) encryption software and now hardware. Alternatively, if you really wish to do it the Enigma way, there are software "Enigma emulator" programs out there.

The Enigma machines were a wonderful idea, but the Germans were a bit too complacent with the "unbreakability" of it, especially when machines fell into Allied hands and British & Polish cryptanalysts were able to figure them out.

The machine shown is one of the simpler (less difficult to decipher) ones, as it has only 3 rotors (wheels above the keyboard). This is typical of ones used by the German Army. The Kriegsmarine (Navy) and Abwehr (intelligence service) typically used 4 rotor variants. Later 5 and even 6 rotor versions were made. None were bulletproof when you knew how they were wired and if knew (or could deduce) the wheel setups. Without knowing those, though, they were pretty well impossible to brute-force with the computing technology of the day.

1. Ant asked how marriage works. Chang and Eng Bunker the famous Siamese twins of the 19th had separate wives. They would take turns spending time with each. That must have worked OK, as they had 10 and 12 children respectively!

2. Sam asked what happens when one dies? Generally there has to be a really quick operation to separate them, or the other will shortly die as well. That was the case with Chang and Eng. Chang died first and Eng followed several hours later. For what it is worth, Chang and Eng probably could have been (relatively) easily separated today, much more so than these girls.

Yeah, Kudos to Michael on posting the Tesla site link. I thought of exactly the same thing myself after my prior posting.

Now, I'm not a big fan of electric cars, but the guys behind Tesla are actually doing it right:

1. They have a real business plan aimed at selling cars, not getting investors.
2. Their business plan makes sense -- roll out the $90K car first, then progressively cheaper models as volume builds up. They aren't pushing an unrealistically low price upfront for the 1st model.
3. They are enlisting help from experts where needed -- the basic chassis is based off a Lotus Elise, a vehicle known for light weight.
4. They clearly *do* know the technology and have made good choices when compromises needed to be made. You can argue with some of their optimism about a few things, but the plan is pretty sound, as is their technology. The same is not true of this FuelVapor car.

Straight talk from Sid. I wish them well.

That's what happens when countries sign away their sovereignty to the United States of Europe. You thought banning the Scotsmen's haggis was the end of it?

Beware!

USA! USA! USA!

You used to be able to buy commercial gizmos which cooked the hotdogs using the same electrocution principle.

Man, I love tube-steaks! You gotta char the hell out of them on the grill though.

This one is a scam, folks. The "technology" they are pushing is hokey -- their site is full of half-truths and downright falsehoods concerning the technology. Note that they are looking for investors, not people to buy the cars. That is always the giveaway...

First, there's nothing "magic" about running pre-vaporized fuel. It's been done many times before. The emissions can be a little better (mostly at low temperature starts), but not gobs better. You will still need a catalytic converter I assure you.

Secondly, if you try to run at 20:1, you will seriously hurt your power density. There are stratified charge engines now that will cruise at 45:1 or higher, but they go back to stoichiometric operation (14.6:1) when power is called for.

Third, if the CO2 is reduced 30%, then by DEFINITION the fuel consumption will be the same amount (unless they are running a different fuel, and they are claiming *gasoline vapor*, not something else). The fact they are claiming only a 10-20% reduction in fuel consumption shows they are technically inept.

Fourth: 20:1 is not declared "impossible" by textbooks. Rather NOx emissions get really bad there and conventional catalysts do not function well at cleaning up a lean feedstream, so they don't help much either.

I can elaborate more, but this is a major scam. "We have a flashy website -- be an investor, please"

Just so some people don't get the wrong idea, though: The story of the killing contest, the newspaper article, pictures, etc. were all things in the *Japanese* press during the war. It may have been propaganda but (amazingly) it was pro-Japanese propaganda put out to stir up some good old Nippon bushido support on the homefront for the "police activity" taking place against the subhuman dog Chinese.

Hey, where exactly is "Crestwood"? Just curious...