Shotgun

Overfeeding an infant can cause an increased number of _permanent_ fat cells, so in some cases parents may be to blame.

Well you're such a charmer, Nick, that you can jump on me any time you like. I whole-heartedly agree, but my impression was that this particular incident happened on private property(?), and trespassing on private property is not one of the laws that I would like to do away with. I don't particularly want to find a bunch of rowdy BASE jumpers in MY backyard... unless I invited them, of course. And this is one of the laws that definitely needs to be kept. I always bounce my pickles before eating them.

It sounds like they considered all of their options, and it sounds like they made the right choice since they got him down safely.

Or maybe the guy who was hanging there should have called in some tower professionals instead of calling the fire department, if that was the obvious thing to do. It sounds to me like the fire dept. did the best job that they possibly could, given the situation. I wouldn't criticize what they did, especially looking at the fact that they had to rescue some person who put himself in a precarious situation while committing a crime.

Ok, now that was the only funny thing I've read in this thread so far. The cat thing might be funny if it wasn't for the fact that some of the people who post on here would probably really pull such a moronic stunt.

Yes, they are. My point is that people who are experiencing major depression are not necessarily capable of following "proper diet and exercise." If you think that they are, then you obviously have little experience with real depression. Perhaps with proper counseling, they would be able to follow this "simple" solution, but we're not so advanced today that we have much proper counseling available for any kind of psychological issues.

Yes, that is something that tends to bug me. It usually appears that they have found something that makes themselves "better" than all the "fat people," so through criticism they are able to make themselves feel better about who they are because they are not fat and therefore better than anyone who is. Obesity is a complicated problem. And being slightly overweight can even be a complicated problem, as you have mentioned with the thyroid stuff. It is pretty unfair for someone with no knowledge to say, "Oh, I gained weight but then I lost it by following a proper diet and exercise program." Sure, that works for many people, but not for everyone when there are other factors involved. There are far too many to list, but one particular issue that comes to mind is that a lot of overweight or obese people are also dealing with psychological issues such as major depression, and that is a key obstacle in the "Stop eating so much and get off your ass and exercise more!" approach. Depression can cause many things that would be counterproductive to that attitude. And that is just to name one of the many things that may be involved. And for the record, I would like to lose a few pounds right now, and it appears that my best bet is to change my eating and exercising habits, which I am working on... I dont' think that I have any thyroid/genetic/viral/etc. problems - I'm pretty sure that my lifestyle choices are the main culprit _for me_ so that is what I will focus on to fix the issue... but to assume that that is the case for anyone with a similar problem would be pretty narrow-minded and would demonstrate a general lack of understanding of how the human body works. If all of these problems were so simple, I think we would pretty much have them figured out and "cured" by now... but for anyone who really wants to take the time to learn about it, you will see that it is not so simple as you might have thought. (That comment not directed at you, of course, Rhonda, but at those who seem to "have it all figured out" with very little real knowledge.)

Perhaps it is not a viral thing for your family, but that does not mean that a virus is not causing obesity in someone else. I don't think the article was implying that a virus is the sole cause of obesity for everyone. Why would you believe that genes could have anything to do with it, but not believe that a virus could? Personally, I've put on about ten unwanted pounds in the last few years, and I feel fairly certain it is due to a less active lifestyle and consuming too many calories... and that is probably the case for the majority of people who are overweight, but that does not mean that there are no other causes.

I don't find it to be all that laughable. As one of the researchers says in this article, "Obesity is multifactoral." It is a complicated problem, and there is no one solution that works for everyone. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051018/hl_afp/afplifestylecanada_051018164658

I vant to suck your blood.

There have been some Halloween hangings in the past (accidents, not suicide) - several where people didn't realize the person was dead right away: http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/hanging.asp

I don't think it's a good idea to take antibiotics for a cold.

Yes, but I believe that is because it is one of the ingredients used to make meth, so they are trying to make it more difficult to get. I wouldn't want to jump while taking any cold medicine either... especially Dayquil - that stuff makes me hallucinate (and not in a good way).

Well, the Tower of Americas, of course: http://hotx.com/hot/hillcountry/sa/tours/hemisfair/pano/towerqtvr.html (You have to click and hold to drag the pic around.) For restaurants, County Line Barbecue on the Riverwalk is good.

That is what I am writing a paper about at the moment... (Sounds like interesting work!) I just happened across this article about the church and thought it sounded like good news... Even though they oppose embryonic stem cell research (which is understandable, even though I don't necessarily agree), at least they are supporting something that might be an alternative.

That's ok. We're all just being buttholes, as usual.

A stake is good roughage though. But I prefer steaks too.

Yeah sure, Bill... and it was a fanny pack that made that baby too.

A picture? Yes, a picture... to go with the 40GB of other pictures I have on my hard drive. Of course, I can hardly be trusted to take care of a picture, let alone a baby...

South Korea's Catholic Church, funding adult stem cell research, that is... but I thought this was interesting: (I'm pretty sure that the Church doesn't support Hwang Woo-Suk's work that is mentioned in this article though, seeing as he just opened up a bank to supply new lines of embryonic stem cells for research.) Source: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20051006/sc_afp/healthstemcellsskorea_051006174038

What a cutie!

Bow down before the one you serve.

You two make a cute mommy and daddy.

We might be able to use him for shoveling snow or something. I guess that will be up to Keith to decide though...

Ummm..but what exactly is he going to be using to stir our drinks with? Oh... that makes me so tempted to post one particular photo that I have... but I better not. And as for Keith... I'm still not convinced that he is gay... I think it is a ploy so that he can get himself invited to the half-naked pillow fights that women always have when no men are around.