Since we're talking about hacking your diet, this is something that has worked incredibly well for me. I fast on Mondays (most Mondays, not all)--I don't consume anything with calories. I drink water, and that's it. I usually end up eating dinner Sunday night and then the next meal I eat will be lunch or dinner on Tuesday.

The strangest thing to me is that I end up feeling really good on Tuesdays! It's somewhat difficult to describe, but when I wake up, I just feel good (and not particularly hungry). The best description I can think of is an extreme opposite of that feeling of "I ate too much!" Mondays are sometimes hard in the evenings when I do get hungry, though I don't get headaches (sometimes people report getting headaches when fasting). I do think that fasting is somewhat addictive, and I can see why pretty much every culture and religion around the world incorporates some form of fasting.

If you have never tried fasting for an extended period, I would give it a try. It's an interesting experience, and for me, not at all unpleasant.

I started fasting because I wanted to try it as an exercise of personal discipline, but I have ended up loosing around 30 lbs over the course of the first year (and keeping it off for 2 more years). I don't calorie count on other days, but I do--and did before fasting--eat reasonably healthily.

I cannot determine which of the narrowly defined punishable exemptions from the first amendment the Okies would fall under? They weren't inciting, they weren't fighting, there was no public danger, etc. It was just plain, dumb, hateful speech. And hateful speech is protected.

What do you think?

Not exactly. A noise ordinance that specifically targeted, e.g., loud rap music (but not loud classical music or loud NPR playing--if such a thing exists!), would be considered an unconstitutional law. The law doesn't have to be vague or confusing to be unconstitutional, though vague or confusing laws certainly can be unconstitutional tool!

Seems to me you've just picked a couple more unpopular groups to insult!

Whoever claimed that "malice" was involved in the standard is quite wrong, but it's worth noting that local noise ordinances are struck down as unconstitutional all the time.

Right in terms of predictions? In a couple of months or years? :-) Right in terms of "good outcome or bad outcome"? That's another question. I don't believe the government should be able to punish unpopular speech. That's also pretty much the accepted case law--universities cannot punish students based solely on unpopular speech.

I should have been more clear. Absolutely there are a very few specific exceptions. Threats of immediate violence are not protected speech--for instance, if the frat members had said "we're going to kill some n*rs" that is a clear threat of violence. That is not protected. Another (famous) example is shouting "fire!" in a crowded theater creating a potentially deadly situation. None of these situations apply here.

Contrary to what you say, you can be aggravating and you can even try to deliberately aggravate people without breaking the law! Think of those "god hates fags" morons. That's pretty much as hateful, stupid, and aggravating as you can get, but it's still protected speech.

Well, actually, the University of Oklahoma is a public--meaning government--institution. Given your errant assumption, I don't think the rest of your post needs replying to?

Accusing someone you don't like of "latent homosexual" tendencies is actually pretty insulting to homosexuals (and nonsensical, but I was planning on ignoring that part!).

Disagree. I believe this will go to court (and I hope it does), and I believe the university will lose (and it should).

"Put up with it" is an interesting phrase. If you don't like my speech, you can ignore me. You can denounce me. You can organize a boycott. But, you cannot compel me with law to stop.

Agreed. As a private organization, github can do whatever they want. Note that this is different from how, for instance, private bakeries or florists, are allowed to operate. They cannot pick and choose their customers based on customer speech!

This is the only thing you said that I disagree with. If the comparison is being made that "A typical german household is not using half of an american but less then a fifth," then you are having to compare apples and oranges. The net energy usage (or, if you get right down to it, the carbon usage) is the point, rather than an irrelevancy.

HVAC--for most areas--remains the largest consumer of residential electricity.

Like you, my electrical rate is $.105/kw. I live in a sunny area (far more so than Germany) but the mathematics for solar don't really make sense for me. Even with tax breaks my payback would be a decade out. Plus, most of my electricity is from the local nuclear plant and I likewise don't feel guilty at all (I've never been into self flagellation). I do more to conserve water as that can be (during droughts) more scarce.

I've run the numbers, clothes drying is not that significant for our household numbers. It is dwarfed by HVAC. For a time we were using cloth diapers and I was counting the number of loads (which, as you might expect, was very high!).

I would like to use a clothesline, but living where I do, we have extreme humidity in the summer that adds some difficulty. A major annoyance of mine is the fascist nature of American home owner's associations, many of which BAN clotheslines. Ridiculous.

I also log local weather station data. For July 2014, the average temperature near my house at 1PM was 33 C and the average humidity was around 80% (with 97% not at all uncommon). You would appreciate the air conditioning too if you lived here (and indeed, a German couple who live in my neighborhood are NOT fans of the humidity during July and August at all!).

Yes, I would expect that outcome, or very close to it anyway.

In 2014, my maximum monthly kWh and lowest monthly:

July: 1599 kWh (almost continual AC usage. max electrical)
April: 489 kWh (min, zero AC usage)

I have smart thermostats and a python script running on cron that logs their status every 3 minutes. I have exact HVAC usage records going back three years, so I can say this with some confidence :)

So, establish a baseline of ~500 kWh if you take away my HVAC usage. Almost 50% of all of my electrical usage is HVAC. If you reduced my house space in half, I would expect the HVAC portion to decrease by more than half. For one thing, I could probably ditch one of the HVAC units, for another thing the external wall portion of the house would be proportionally smaller (fewer leaks, etc). Lighting and wiring losses would add some additional reductions in electrical usage.

So, I think watt per square meter of home is a very informative measure.

If you would rather argue kWh / person, I'm guessing--giving the GP's data--that I would still compare favorably to many European households! It's possible I'm missing something, but that GP's data is the first real numbers I have seen of individual, not aggregate, European (German) household usage.

I have 3 cats and I can guarantee they have never killed a bird (they are indoor only)! They did catch a mice once...

To be fair, in both rural and urban areas in many parts of the country, there are large feral cat populations. I still don't believe the 4 billion number.

Fully agreed that those numbers look totally specious.