I could not disagree more. I think a lot of Americans (including myself) who go to the gym regularly are not suited well by the BMI chart. A far better calculation would be a chest to waist measurement (or a caliper measurement of fat around the waist). Both of those would be more time consuming but would be a better judge of obesity.

A 5'10 male is considered over weight at 174lbs(https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/lose_wt/BMI/bmi_tbl.pdf) and obese at 209. I'm 5'10. If I weighed 174lbs I would be cut - competition cut. When I weigh 19 I can flex out my abs. And yet - according to the BMI chart I am borderline obese.

The BMI charts are worthless in my opinion. There is nothing about them that has any validity - especially with a population that values muscles and goes to a gym to add muscle (as opposed to taking off fat). According to the chart - middle of the range normal would be 153. What!!! If I trimmed to 3% body fat I don't think I would be under 170lbs.

So. No. I don't think BMI is accurate measurement of health or obesity.

Interesting !! I noticed (of course) that 42 was 2x 21 but had not heard that WHO declares a country as being ebola-free after two incubation periods w/o new cases.

I heard it somewhere, but I don't think it was Fox (as I rarely even stop there). I think it was the local news channel ( NY1 - the default when you turn on the TV). But that doesn't matter.

True. At least that what I had heard at first. Then some other news / scare outlets started mentioning that the time frame may be twice that (42 days).

It's a combination of many things - including how we work out. A couple of years ago I spent some time in Italy. I came back to my gym and there was this real fat fck. Oh sh*t he's fat. But then he does shrugs with 7 plates. OMG. And then benches with 4. Shit that mutherfck3r is strong.

In 5 minutes I go from thinking he is a fat slob to being super impressed.

To those not into weight lifting saying someone puts on 4 plates is someone putting on 4 45 pound (20 kilo) weights on each end of a 45 pound bar. Four plates is lifting 415 pounds(180 kilos).

I notice my work out habit. If I don't have time I lift and skip the aerobics. I probably have about 15-20 pounds of fat on me. If I chose to run instead of lift on those time-deprived days I would probably be 30-35 pounds lighter (the fat plus less muscle).

Precaution and panic are not identical - especially when the powers that be are inconsistent and contradictory in their warning. Do we truly know when someone is contagious? We know that if the person is vomiting and generally incapacitated he is infectious and that the period from contracting the disease to becoming infectious is 21 days.

But - in each of these cases we don't know when EXACTLY a person contracted ebola; nor is it EXACTLY 21 days to the minute.

So was the doctor who went bowling in Williamsburg a risk to those around him before he fell sick the next morning? There is no oops here. Contracting ebola is pretty much like playing russian roulette with 3 chambers filled.

I'm not saying that doctors have to be in solitary confinement for 3 wks after coming back - but it would be rather easy to isolate them in their own home or in a facility; give them internet. tv, cable, take out food - whatever. The cost to society is minimal compared to scrambling clean-up crews and tracking down people they came in contact with after-the-fact; and the inconvenience to the doctor in having to stay in a hotel room /their own apartment (if they live alone) or where ever is trivial compared to the cost to them if they infected family, friends, others.

Take a look at Mike Tyson circa 1990: 5'10" and 218 pounds. According to BMI metrics he's obese. (31.3)

Proofed it quickly and missed "prey instead of pray." WHACK!!! Another slap on the wrist.

That's true. It wasn't a typo. Sometimes when writing quickly I write the wrong word: to instead of too, add instead of ad; for instead of fore; pray instead of pray. That's why you're supposed to proofread before sending out an important email. Mea culpa. I didn't proofread my post. If I had I would have clarified my remarks and *probably* would have caught *do* as opposed to due.

I proofed this post and found that I wrote "proof read" instead of proofread. And, if I had let go through - would that be a sign of a lack of education or something else? A lack of attention to to the spelling and grammar on an insignificant post.

It is, however, a faulty assumption to hold that transposing homophones is a sign that the writer can't distinguish between the two words

Yah. I'm a fking moron - either that or I didn't review my post properly. Which, according to you, probably makes me a fking moron. Notice, I also forgot to close the parentheses and wrote a run on sentence. Bad me. (Slapping my wrist.)

OK. Maybe some panicked. :- )

I live in NYC. No panic here. Not even close.

I see the media panicking. I don't see the American public panicking.

If anything there is concern that the government is not taking proper choices do to politics (such as restricting / checking people who travel to ebola and requiring that doctors spend 21 days (or so) at home or in a nice isolation ward at the hospital with TV and all the take out menus they want.

Because Catholics do not believe that everything a pope says is to be considered infallible.

How do you distinguish between an illegal alien's cell phone usage (living there but not to be included in the census) and a legal resident of the state?

In correct. The southern strategy was the result of a third party. George Wallace ,the racist Alabama Governor was running for President on a Third Party line. Nixon's southern strategy was the belief that he could win states with only 40 percent of the vote - thus it was worth it for him to spend time and energy running in the south.

He was right. He would states with 40% of the vote.

The south didn't turn republican until 1994 so ... either this is a bullshit meme or Nixon was one hell of a long-term strategist.