I hope you fall in a well.

But because of my increased endurance and strength, I will claw my way out of any well, alive and ready to spread my madness to this world.

I am tired of hearing this argument.

Getting in shape is not rocket science - all it takes is motivation, and persistence.

You think those of us who are fit enjoy eating salads? Do you really think I enjoy drinking water instead of soda? Or do you think we somehow magically like candy less than everyone else? We are still humans, and we crave the exact same things. A bag of Doritos and some beer look just as tempting to us as they look to you.

Getting in shape is almost entirely about dietary control. You even see it in the article, where the guy says that his company got him a gym membership. No, the solution is not a gym membership -- it is good diet.

And at the end of the day, diet is much easier than working out.

There is a reason people say that six pack abs are made in the kitchen. Every time I've had a six pack, it's been entirely because my diet has been in check. And when overeat, it doesn't matter how much or how hard I work out -- you cannot outrun a shitty diet.

Besides,someone who eats healthy and does not work out is often in better shape than someone who eats junk and "works out" for half hour a day. Most of those people just use their momentum to do some crazy exercises with piss poor forms, and eat unhealthy crap afterwards because they've worked out (think middle aged man with flabby biceps and a beer gut trying to bench press, when he probably has 50% body fat).

The solution to getting in shape is fairly simple. As long as you're in a caloric deficit, get enough protein (~1g/lb of lean body mass), and engage your muscles (I prefer to lift + rock climb + row), then you will shed the fat.

At the end of the day, it comes down to simple math. You just need to burn more than you eat. And often, it's just a lot easier to not eat that bag of chips or only eat a salad for lunch and dinner than, say, run it off.

For instance, a bag of Lays kettle chips is ~200 calories and a regular size chocolate chip cookie is ~180 calories. A bowl of Cap'n Crunch with skim milk? 300 calories. Add some sugar to that, and just having these will put you over 600 calories. That's ONE hour of running at 6mph.

Instead, you can have some egg whites and oatmeal for lunch, two salads, and perhaps some baked lean meat or seafood for lunch and save yourself a whole lot of calories.

This whole culture of saying that something is too difficult because it's an addition is nonsense. Whatever happened good old fashioned responsibility and personal accountability?

Indeed. Slashdot has always discussed politics of import, and this is no different.

Not to mention, I consider this to be Slashdot maturing in terms of the type of topics that are discussed.

There are plenty of sites that discuss the "shiny new tech thingy" -- Slashdot ceased to be that site a long time ago. These days, I consider it to be a good mix of tech, business, and politics -- one whose readers offer up (mostly) intelligent opinions that I can relate to.

Violence has been trending down for decades

You can't support that conclusion definitively. What's positively been changing for decades is the way police report crimes. That, combined with the sheer numbers of people we're imprisoning, might be contributing to a drop overall level of crime but until there are uniform reporting guidelines, that conclusion is, at best, fragile.

Around here if someone shoots holes in your apartment, unless someone is hit, it gets reported as vandalism, even though most sane people would agree that's a gun crime. If someone pulls a gun on you here, unless it's accompanied by a threat or robbery, it's not considered a gun crime. There was a big stink in the paper about it a few months ago that involved dozens of local PDs. How many other PDs are playing similar games with their crime statistics? Nobody knows for sure. Since that's where the FBI gets their statistics, then garbage in, garbage out would apply.

Their customer service sucks and their website (last I checked) is a hot mess.

Slashdot moderation needs an Understatement rating. GoDaddy is to domain registrars what Comcast is to the cable industry.

Ummm, the mirrors are to ensure that you have good form when you work out.

The goal of bodybuilding is indeed aesthetics, and they do not hide it. Their goal is not functional -- rather, their goal is the full development of every muscle on the body in a proportional manner.

And that does not mean it's easy, either. People often assume that that degree of muscular development is just "lifting weights" and that is the farthest from the truth. Bodybuilding entails making sure that you pretty much develop every visible muscle group, without any one group looking out of proportion than the other. For instance, my chest and calves are the hardest to build, and it takes me a lot of effort to ensure that they develop in proportion to the rest of my body, my shortcomings notwithstanding.

However, bodybuilders are far from the best examples of fitness simply because their whole bulk/cut regimen isn't healthy, not to mention the overabundance of supplements that they consume. But I cannot tell from your post if you're referring to all bodybuilders (including the professional ones) or to the popular perception of the gym rat bodybuilder.

But there is a part of your argument that I disagree with - while they body builders may not be as strong as they should be, given their muscular density, that is by design. They're still stronger than most people (I mean, if you're squatting over a thousand pounds, imagine crushing something with those legs).

They may have some shortcomings compared to others of a leaner makeup, and that is a function of what they focus on. As a rock climber, I am more agile but my mirror muscles will never get that big; but despite having great lung capacity, my lung capacity will never equal that of my wife's, who's a long distance swimmer. Similarly, despite being strong and flexible, I cannot dream of ever squatting anything over 350 lbs. Because at some level, you hit a very realistic limit that cannot be overcome without additional muscle mass.

Bodybuilders are extremely good at what they do - i.e. push their muscle development to the max. You cannot judge a fish by how high it can fly.

My son is 3 months old, and I walk around in a dazed stupor. It's a miracle that I am functional most of the time. Fortunately, my job has been greatly understanding, so that's been helpful.

Can't spell Snowden right, eh?

The last option should be changed to Snowen who, to match the typo.

Slashdot's editorial service at its best.

What happened to hiring the best person for the job?

I used to work for a state agency that was under-represented in black employees when compared to the surrounding population. It was a matter of some concern until HR did an audit and found the percentage of African-American employees at the agency was proportional with the number of applicants. There was no systematic discrimination against blacks, they simply weren't applying for the jobs in the same numbers. So then HR switched to having job fairs in African-American communities and encouraging more people of color to apply for jobs. That didn't work, either. HR, which was by far the most racially diverse department in the agency, finally just said the bureaucratic version of "fuck it" and went back to business as usual. All that shit storm and concern over nothing.

Understanding a complex system involves nuances. After all, simple rules can create complex patterns; even if we understood all the capabilities and the functions of our brains, we may not necessarily be capable of explaining every outcome.

So, yes, you may understand the brain, but that may not mean squat outside of academic vantage.

Depends entirely on the industry and level of scrutiny your spreadsheet is likely to be subjected to.

In some industries, such as banking or consulting, spreadsheets are bread and butter. So, you'd better be prepared to have your models torn apart by everyone from fellow associates to senior partners (yes, they *actually* do review the models - especially when millions of dollars may be riding on them).

In those industries, much like coding, you design your models well and include a ton of documentation, include "test" sheets to validate that everything is working fine, minimize the use of "custom" macros, and keep functions at a modular, manageable level.

Did you really just compare working on a computer with taking a life?

Most veterinarians I know love animals, and it is heart wrenching to take the life of something you love.

No matter how "hard" you think normalizing a database is, it doesn't come close to look at a puppy's eyes as you give it a lethal injection, or as they try to get away.

I have volunteered at an animal shelter, and I can tell you that it is gut wrenching to see these animals in pain, and there isn't ANY comparison whatsoever.

We lost our ad account when Google accused us of hosting porn. The "porn" they pointed out were links to fairly vanilla pictures posted by some of our long-time forum members. We weren't even hosting it. I appealed, they pointed out two more links like that one. Links.

I refused to remove content that really wasn't that offensive, posted by members and complied with our forum rules. It did open my eyes to how Google could be a giant, inflexible jackass.

I agree with you 150%.