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Comment: Re: Speculation (Score 1) 492

by Dwarfgoat (#44635769) Attached to: New Drug Mimics the Beneficial Effects of Exercise

I've never been properly fitted or anything...I just have a medium quality mountain bike I ride on the trails around some local parks. Yes to clipless pedals...the idea of having my feet attached to the bike terrifies me! Remembering to pop them out before trying to put a foot down seems like something I'd have a hard time mastering! ;)

Comment: Re:Speculation (Score 2) 492

by Dwarfgoat (#44635271) Attached to: New Drug Mimics the Beneficial Effects of Exercise

Not true. I have always had a very large frame, and even when at a "healthy" BMI, my weight is about 260 lbs. Years of jogging/running and playing soccer (yes, I know, soccer...I was too much of a geek to ever think of playing football, much to several coaches' lament) have left my knees painful, popping, pre-arthritic degenerative wrecks. Actually, come to think of it, it's probably for the best that I never liked football.

Unfortunately, my doctors have only just recently told me that I should have avoided such high-impact exercise once I hit 235-240 lbs (which I did by age 19). The human body just isn't designed to carry around that much weight (even if it is fairly well-toned muscle). Cartilage can only take so much pounding before it begins to degrade. Biking and elliptical machines are about all I can do for cardio work anymore, and even that hurts like a bitch afterwards. I'm in my mid-thirties, and looking at knee replacements in the next 10-15 years. Yay. At least pro athletes who have to deal with this nonsense have a career (and hopefully a lot of savings) to look back on and say "It was worth it." I'm just an overly-large Unix Engineer (who's weight, now that I can't run anymore, is closer to 300 lbs now—biking just isn't cutting it like running did...sigh).

Comment: Re:No missile batteries or other defenses? (Score 1) 545

by Dwarfgoat (#44543877) Attached to: Could Humanity Really Build 'Elysium'?


I got the impression from the movie that politically (perhaps in their constitution), they were hampered when it came to that sort of defense. Remember the shitstorm that the defense minister generated by having her earthside agent deal with the inbound shuttles. The president and his council were not happy with her at all. She made a big speech about needing the freedom and tools to keep things safe (or at least keep the status quo), and they seemed content to ignore her and threaten her removal if she acted violently again.

Comment: Re:We can do anything (Score 1) 545

by Dwarfgoat (#44543827) Attached to: Could Humanity Really Build 'Elysium'?

In the movie, on the station, all labor, security, etc. is performed by semi-autonomous service droids (as well as policing of the unwashed masses below). It's not a stretch to assume that all construction of the station was also done with robotic labor. No worries about the masses having any say on construction schedules, especially if said robots are harvesting raw materials from the asteroid belt/comets. In fact, the only real "industry" we see on earth is a factory assembling service droids.

Comment: Re:What about air? (Score 2) 545

by Dwarfgoat (#44543511) Attached to: Could Humanity Really Build 'Elysium'?

Actually, in the movie, the primary wheel of the station is more of a U-shaped trough, completely open on the inner "sky" side wall. That's actually one of the major issues I had with the movie...because I'm pretty sure one just gee of centrifugal force is nowhere near enough to keep an atmosphere only a few miles deep in place (it's maybe 5-10's hard to judge scale with all the "homes" inside being palatial estates). Nowhere is there discussion of any sort of force fields or anything of the like meant to keep the air in (though one of the Elysium agents produces a crackling, sparking protective field to hide behind at several points in the movie, so there is *some* sort of field tech). The various shuttlecraft have no issues dipping in and out of atmo with impunity as they flit about the station, implying there's nothing there, field-wise. I was hoping they'd cover a little bit more of the tech behind the station, but sadly, they did not.

Comment: Re:I hope it explodes and kills him (Score 1) 336

by Dwarfgoat (#44497133) Attached to: Version 2.0 of 3D-Printed Rifle Successfully Fires 14 Rounds

Bypasses what regulation, exactly? In my state (VA) and in most others, there is no "regulation" of firearms beyond that limited by the National Firearms Act of 1986 (which includes restrictions on machine guns, short-barreled (sawed-off) rifles and shotguns, and "destructive devices" like grenades, mortars, RPGs and the like). It is only a small minority of US states that require any sort of licensing or registration of firearms. In most places, it is perfectly legal to build anything you like--out of any materials you like--as long as you do not sell (transfer) it to another person.

Comment: Re:Make your own red light district (Score 3, Informative) 216

by Dwarfgoat (#44331423) Attached to: Yahoo Censors Tumblr Porn

No, there isn't a limit to "side blogs" as they're called (I run another one for information on my band's tour schedule). Replying to messages and following other blogs is limited to your primary blog, however.

As far as self-censoring the occasional photograph I take that might have boobs, the horse is already out of the barn. Someone at Tumblr made the call some time ago that my blog was NSFW (luckily, they recognized the difference between art and porn, and did not flag it as "adult." This NSFW flag can apparently never be changed (Tumblr has no mechanism for review or protestation of their classifications). I'd have to start completely over, and somehow convince my several thousand followers to go follow the new blog. At this point, I've got too much invested in "my brand" to deal with any of that.

Comment: Re:Ten percent? My ass (Score 5, Informative) 216

by Dwarfgoat (#44330477) Attached to: Yahoo Censors Tumblr Porn

It's not just blogs that feature posts tagged as "adult," it's the entirety of any blog tumblr has already flagged as NSFW or adult (the overall blog flag, not just posts). My personal photography blog has been branded as NSFW, as I sometimes post risque work. Basically, there will be no new discovery of my blog, since Tumblr's also blocked internal tag searches for such blogs as well (unless one is already following said blog). My rate of addition of new followers dropped precipitously after that. the occasional nipple is going to end the world.


+ - Long-lost continent found under the Indian Ocean->

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+ - Scientists develop a way to extract energy from coal without burning it ->

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