I know it’s a great follow-up to the “De-fatify” post, but seriously, where’d they go?  I’ve been looking at Walmart, Kmart, etc and there just never seems to be any troop out front selling any cookies. 

It’s just as well though, I’ve now placed a bid on an entire case of Do-Si-Dos on eBay, so I’ll still get my yearly fix plus some. =)  Oddly enough, it will be the first purchase I’ve made on my eBay account since it was created about 6 years ago.

Anyways, I hope to post some information on a few interesting court cases in the next few days.  One will definitely be on an employers recourse for employee internet browsing (which may surprise you if you haven’t read the news).  The other one I can’t recall off hand, so I’ll have to go dig around for what it was again (I know I bookmarked it while I was at work….).

I am sore all over.  I just recently signed up at the local Gold’s Gym and, so far, my workout has been kinda like a buffet.  I’d try one machine for a few minutes, then I’d jumped up and try the next one.  If I can provide one tip to anybody going to a gym it would be, don’t do that! =)

Today, I spent about 10mins on this machine that was kinda like the elliptical machine, but was similiar to having to climb up excessively large steps/stairs that would randomly change the degree of incline every so often.  I guess it was supposed to simulate hiking in the woods, but after a short while I gave it up and went back to the trusty treadmill.

On a technology note, one thing I thought was neat was the heart monitors built into the handles of some of the equipment.  Depending on the rate of speed I’m going, my heart rate was usually between 130-165bpm.  According to the charts, I was in the “Cardio Zone” which was right above the “Fat Burning Zone” and not too far away from the “Twilight Zone.”  But not only did the displays give me information about my heart rate, they also displayed calories burned, watts generated, and something called METs.  (Just did a quick lookup on METs and it stands for metabolic equivalent units….or how much oxygen I’m consuming. 1 MET = 3.5milliliters of oxygen).

I also noticed something in regards to the use of my inhaler.  I used to use a prescription inhaler that contained albuterol, however, lately I’ve been using an OTC inhaler that contains epinephrine.  After having used the OTC once in between the treadmill and bike-like machine I noticed that my heart rate was up to 180bpm while pedaling!  I suppose it’s no wonder though, considering epinephrine is also known as adrenaline.  However, according to the maximal heart rate formula, 180bpm is well below my max at my current age. 

Anyways, I think I’m gonna take a break in between workout days so my body has time to heal.

“Here, in strictness, the people surrender nothing, and as they retain every thing, they have no need of particular reservations.” - Alexander Hamilton.

Alexander Hamilton was opposed to a Bill of Rights (the first ten amendments).  He feared that by expressly reserving certain rights it would preclude other rights not mentioned. However, Thomas Jefferson responded to this particular thought by saying it’s better to reserve some rights than none at all.

As one of our reserved rights and our second amendment, it goes as follows:

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

The reasoning behind the second amendment was that a group, known as the AntiFederalists, feared that a large government with a standing army would hinder democracy.  They were afraid that the standing army would prevent any outbursts against possible tyrannies of government.

References:
Black’s Law Dictionary
Wikipedia - 2nd Amendment
The Assault Weapons Ban

Since I’ll be attending law school in august, I thought it might benefit me to go over the amendments of the U.S. Constititution (there’s 27!).  Until recently, I could really only remember what the first one was.  But, I’ll start with it anyways.

The First Amendment (1791) says that:

Congress shall:

• make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;
• or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press;
• or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, or to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

The only part that may make somebody stop and say “Uh…what?”, is probably the second half of the last bullet.  What it boils down to is that all citizens of the U.S. can request the government to remedy or provide relief for a wrong or injustice that has occurred to them.  (In legal speak, relief is almost exclusively defined as money.)

So, do you feel smarter now?

10 points to whoever can tell me what the 2nd Amendment says without looking it up.

In case nobody has noticed, there’s a new addition to the site at the bottom of the links to the right.  Yahoo! Answers is currently in beta and is a community website where anybody can go to ask/answer questions on just about any subject.

I’ve been answering a few and it’s somewhat satisfying when your answer is chosen as the “Best Answer” over that of the other participants.  Yahoo’s incentive to visitors to participate is a point system that rewards you for various things like answering questions, voting on a best answer, and rating other peoples answers.  They’ve even gone so far as to establish a leaderboard that shows who is leading the way in points in total and for that week (I’m nowhere near the top).

Yahoo! answers is similiar to Google Answers, but I think the main difference is the community that’s built up around Yahoo! Answers.  Whereas Google’s site is tailored more towards having the questioner (cool word huh?) pay a small fee to have an actual professional research and answer your question, Yahoo! allows anybody with an account to answer your, or anybody elses, question.  While it may seem like this type of system could lead to frivoulous replies, thanks to the point system above, you can usually get a decent answer to your question.

So, if you’ve got a question, ask it! Usually an answer is given within an hour or so by any number of Yahoo! Answers participants.  I primarily answer questions in the Programming & Design category.