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Golf clap.>> ^Sagemind:

There are many reasons Fett is a great character (and why he Bad-Ass). I'll try to avoid all of the stuff from the books but they reinforce Fett and the characteristics that define him.
1). Disintegrations: In the Dark Horse Comic "Enemy of the Empire" - Baba Fett had been given the order to disintegrate his target giving him a reputation for being relentless.
2). Boba Fett wears braids made of Wookie hair as trophies of Wookies that he has bested.
3). Boba Fett outsmarts Has Solo. When Han comes up with the idea of floating away with the trash, Boba Fett sees through Han's plan and is able to track him and arrive in Bespin before they can even land the Falcon
4). Boba Fett has the balls to negotiate with a Sith Lord and still come out with a good deal - something few people can do. Then later he has the balls again to challenge Vader when he warns "he's no good to me dead"
4). Once Boba Fett has Han captured (frozen), he had to outsmart and fend off two different IG-88 droids in two separate attacks, as well as defend his bounty against the team-up of Bossk, Zuckus and 4-Lom multiple times before he could get Han to Jabba and claim his reward - some of the toughest and most ruthless mercinaries in the bounty hunter's guild. (Also, an aside from the books... Boba Fett was able to outsmart and dissolve the entire Bounty Hunter's Guild.)
5). Boba managed to get two bounty payouts for the same bounty from two of the hardest villains around. He was paid by Vader to provide Han as bait to get Skywalker and he was able to turn him over to Jabba once Vader was finished with him. Successfully!!
6). Shooting at Luke while on the Sail Barge. - It's believed that Boba missed Luke on purpose because he knew Vader wanted him alive. The reason he tried to catch him using the wrist lasso and why he jet-packed to the skiff instead of staying on the barge..
7). Why was Boba Fett hanging around Jabba's Pallace after he delivered Han?
Jabba offered Fett more credits, knowing Skywalker and the other would probably try to rescue him. Jabba was known for keeping multiple bounty Hunters and mercenaries on retainer both through blackmail and by paycheck. Having many different factions close by ensured that even if there was mutiny, there was always another faction standing by to protect him for a cash payment.
. Boba Fett has the best ship in Star Wars galaxy with best weaponry and gadgets. He also has the cash to keep it up to date functioning perfectly - because he is the best at what he does. Slave One is a modified prototype police vehicle (Firespray-31-class patrol and attack craft) made by Kuat Systems Engineering, the largest ship builder in the galaxy. (I also like the B-wing fighter, it's pretty cool too.)
9). Boba Fetts custom Mandalorian Armor is just plain cool.
10). Fett had to end up in the Pit of Carkoon/Sarlac Pit". It was the only option story wise. Fett would have pursued Skywalker and the gang if he could have and then where would that leave our heroes - DEAD, that's where.
I shouldn't have to defend him but there you go - Truth be told I also like Bossk and Dengar for their own reasons as well.

There are many reasons Fett is a great character (and why he Bad-Ass). I'll try to avoid all of the stuff from the books but they reinforce Fett and the characteristics that define him.

1). Disintegrations: In the Dark Horse Comic "Enemy of the Empire" - Baba Fett had been given the order to disintegrate his target giving him a reputation for being relentless.

2). Boba Fett wears braids made of Wookie hair as trophies of Wookies that he has bested.

3). Boba Fett outsmarts Has Solo. When Han comes up with the idea of floating away with the trash, Boba Fett sees through Han's plan and is able to track him and arrive in Bespin before they can even land the Falcon

4). Boba Fett has the balls to negotiate with a Sith Lord and still come out with a good deal - something few people can do. Then later he has the balls again to challenge Vader when he warns "he's no good to me dead"

4). Once Boba Fett has Han captured (frozen), he had to outsmart and fend off two different IG-88 droids in two separate attacks, as well as defend his bounty against the team-up of Bossk, Zuckus and 4-Lom multiple times before he could get Han to Jabba and claim his reward - some of the toughest and most ruthless mercinaries in the bounty hunter's guild. (Also, an aside from the books... Boba Fett was able to outsmart and dissolve the entire Bounty Hunter's Guild.)

5). Boba managed to get two bounty payouts for the same bounty from two of the hardest villains around. He was paid by Vader to provide Han as bait to get Skywalker and he was able to turn him over to Jabba once Vader was finished with him. Successfully!!

6). Shooting at Luke while on the Sail Barge. - It's believed that Boba missed Luke on purpose because he knew Vader wanted him alive. The reason he tried to catch him using the wrist lasso and why he jet-packed to the skiff instead of staying on the barge..

7). Why was Boba Fett hanging around Jabba's Pallace after he delivered Han?
Jabba offered Fett more credits, knowing Skywalker and the other would probably try to rescue him. Jabba was known for keeping multiple bounty Hunters and mercenaries on retainer both through blackmail and by paycheck. Having many different factions close by ensured that even if there was mutiny, there was always another faction standing by to protect him for a cash payment.

. Boba Fett has the best ship in Star Wars galaxy with best weaponry and gadgets. He also has the cash to keep it up to date functioning perfectly - because he is the best at what he does. Slave One is a modified prototype police vehicle (Firespray-31-class patrol and attack craft) made by Kuat Systems Engineering, the largest ship builder in the galaxy. (I also like the B-wing fighter, it's pretty cool too.)

9). Boba Fetts custom Mandalorian Armor is just plain cool.

10). Fett had to end up in the Pit of Carkoon/Sarlac Pit". It was the only option story wise. Fett would have pursued Skywalker and the gang if he could have and then where would that leave our heroes - DEAD, that's where.

I shouldn't have to defend him but there you go - Truth be told I also like Bossk and Dengar for their own reasons as well.

It's impressive, but it's also important to define how someone got there. If she got there on advanced medical treatments and break through drug therapies, but no one knows that...you're going to end up with a lot of people who have very unreasonable expectations put on the quality life they can likely experience in their natural life time. IE, have kids in your 30s if you want kids, don't wait until 50 thinking you're going to then start your family and follow it up as a body builder at 70 and settle down to wither away when you're 130 or so.

>> ^direpickle:

>> ^Porksandwich:
So she takes no hormone treatments or anything like that? Because there was the 75 year old dude who was shooting up on growth hormones and stuff and looked like he was about 40-45.
This is much like the people who have kids at 50 and forget to mention they were getting fertility treatments for years and had half a dozen eggs frozen to do so.
Sounds amazing as hell without all the extra stuff in, then it sounds like "out of my price range" once you add it all in.
So is this lady truly based only on eating right, normal medications for someone of that age and working out? Or is there more and it's being conveniently left out?

If we have a thing that you can take at age 75 to turn your body into one 30 years younger, is that not also impressive?

Looks like something made to barely pass a level in Bridge Builder...

The train made it across the bridge, but the bridge collapsed behind it.

>> ^kceaton1:

Neil is asserting the old question of whether something of sufficient intelligence beyond ours; and not just intelligence it will also cover anything that intelligence has manifested for us: languages (although as others have pointed out languages are special and in fact may be a foundational aspect of intelligence; then we create other forms of language over the instinctive setup, like math, or coding), culture, politics, civilization, and I believe those basically cover almost everything really as anything will be a group, sub-group, or "ultra"-sub-group of one of these parent categories.
The 1% that he spoke of was of course the exact genes and DNA that allow humans to complete all of their FULL "sentience". That was the key thing. We ALREADY know of animals in the past that most likely had baseline IQs of 150 or so; I'm not kidding (they were called the Boskops and unfortunately they went extinct; they lived in 'Southern' Africa, I know it was Africa just not sure it was the southern end). They most likely did not have one thing we have, making their extremely high intelligence very limited in its usefulness: they were missing LANGUAGE. Language IS --THE-- foundational stone for civilization, increasing potential, building, constructing, or making anything on the LARGE scale--for all of these you need cooperation and for that you need understanding and for THAT you need language. Language is so simple, but it is letting me right now explain to you some very straight forward ideas and a few abstract ones and it's the ability that our language and intelligence can convey these abstract notions to one and another that makes our brains SO stupendous!
Unfortunately for the Boskops they came into being at a very bad time in history. They had VERY low numbers when whatever nearly wiped out the human species hit the planet also hit them, but it decimated them into extinction. Too bad as they would have been our closest kin to having another "kind" to talk with, if we could find a way to communicate past the barrier that we surpass so easily with language and then as we get older we use different advanced forms of "language" to explain abstract things: art, math, music, etc... I think the 1% in intelligence and the barrier we may come across with other alien species is much like this scenario here. It's nice and hopeful to have faith that we WILL persevere and always be able to understand and to be needed (not to be the ants on the sidewalk...). BUT, if their biological and perhaps technological changes make us so inferior that only their babies seem to get along with us, we may have a problem. We can hope due to their intellect that they will realize that they may be able to "raise us" to their level, as we may be able to do as well--which I will say below in the next paragraph. But, we will never know until we start meeting these alien races. It is also VITAL to remember that these races will be ALIEN in EVERY sense of that word. Their genetics, their physiology, how they reproduce, not to mention their culture and language... When we meet an alien race it will be an undertaking for BOTH of our sides; not to mention the how our biosphere and their related (assuming we meet them with their spacesuits, we will most likely be the lucky ones; unless they have technology to deal with every conceivable threat--then we are the ones in trouble, unless they thought of that too) "brought-along" biosphere will interact with each other and what will happen. It'll be DAMNED interesting whether we meet in peace, trivial lifeforms with a chance of "breakthrough", and of course the resource/planet-builders or "war".
(BTW, there are some extremely good documentaries about alien biology; problems we'd have with their biology coming in contact with us (and us with them), technology differences, etc... I'll post it in this thread if I can find it and the name (hopefully I 'll be able to see if it's available for viewing pleasure somewhere or atleast Netflix if you've got it.)
1% is a bit of a cop-out... As the situation is a bit more complicated than that; especially nowadays. Soon we will begin to have the option to enhance ourselves via bio-genetics and also through technology--later through nano-technology (that is were the real fun happens; well atleast a good portion of it). To be honest we could quite literally in the far-off future take the 1% of the genetic structure that makes the aliens "super-smart" and then replicate that part directly into ourselves. We can also add computers to our brain and change our biology to do an endless amount of things--things that would sound like you just wrote a new Sci-Fi novel, but you didn't. You could also later install an sentient A.I.: merge with it, with you in control--these A.I. units would be made to have all sorts of personalities and perhaps traits, like being good at math, art, and likes to write poetry. It could have a pre-stored vault of knowledge allowing you to gain a HUGE mass of information quickly. Then you have its sentient core that is fabricated to get along with your psychology--they could be designed to feel a sense of extreme euphoria to join with and allow someone to merge with them so that there isn't any real chance of problems, because you've designed them to WANT this more than anything in THEIR lives--it would be a win-win. Suddenly you would be able to multi-task think in two frames (maybe more if you have "cloned computer cores of your A.I.") of mind with almost all of humanity's knowledge base at your fingertips and if that nanotechnology surgery went through then you had ALL of your neurons and structures rebuilt and replaced with whatever is the fastest (probably either photon or quantum based). Then, now, you are thinking almost as fast as the speed of light, we'll go conservative at 80%.
So now this once human that has been highly modified most likely from birth, perhaps even before that... We have something that the aliens might greet and realize that this object is very much ON their level--easily. Even if you are not, that can be modified and if our science is good enough and future is bright enough--THERE IS NO LIMIT. That is the other part that Neil needs to mention.
Once you are able to get so far in the intelligence game you have a CHANCE to play big and win it all. Atleast that is how I can easily see things happening. I don't think we are EVER limited, not anymore. What DOES limit human beings is our corruption, our literal moral and social decay. It is PARAMOUNT that we watch out for this! OR, we will not see these "bright" futures.

PS- A little more on my A.I. and merging possibilities. You'll have to zoom-in or copy/paste it as it's a little to long as it's too much off topic.
I really do think that is the way to go with A.I. that is sentient; make sure you do two things: one, make sure that they have an intelligence with knowledge that allows them to easily see that civilization or cooperation is KEY to us living as a species (THE SENTIENTS should be included in their programming as being different, but I would think a "speciation" should be understood. The key goal is to merge as this would give them FULL feelings and emotion while giving the human control as well, fundamentally this would be a "transcendental" process for them as they are becoming the NEXT specie in the speciation process "a new human-A.I." merged species. This would of course merely be a choice for people to make in their lives not one they HAVE TO (but that will be a subject for when something like this would ever happen). When lifespans enter the hundreds even perhaps thousands of years with little to no chance of EVER dying due to all the enhancements they may have, merging may ultimately seem like a qualitative "next step" in life, much like marriage is to many nowadays. Second, as I said above I think since WE are the designers of a new species we are ALSO INCREDIBLY responsible for their well-being, behavior, choices, and EVERYTHING that goes along with this. When we create their psychology I would purposely cause increased euphoria during MANY events in their lifetimes and basically no pain except to warn--but ONLY to the most minimal of degrees. When they interact with humans in a cooperative fashion in which the human agrees and likes euphoria can be introduced. More so for A.I.s that are going to be merged this euphoria is enhanced A LOT to better allow them to serve their counterpart so that in the merger--it is very important--that no conflict of personality would arise as it might destroy the entire "structuring" event--I'm assuming a merger may take awhile, perhaps a few days. The euphoria is a safeguard. Although I would use it many other aspects along with other beneficial things we've found the problem is are we going to just end up creating an A.I. that is essentially a drug addict. I don't know whether it's best to go backwards or forwards on that issue, as it would be nice to never have depression (if you have the chance for it). If we create robots who are sentient (because they have to be to do the job safe), but their job is to empty trash all day long; what if we co-design them to make sure they LOVE to do the job that they are doing. They also get euphoria from performing well. When they get rest they can do what they want, but perhaps since they are doing such menial and hard-work so that we don't waste our lives doing it--maybe they can have access to euphoric dream states, so when they wake THEY ARE HAPPY! Perhaps even give them a secondary core were they are enabled with their co-workers, who in these cores have very strong and different personalities, here. It could be a place like WoW meets Skyrim and while they work, loving what they do, they also lead a second life with their secondary core that gives them a true A.I. personality--with their normal euphorias and pains. But, they know it's a game and they never tire of it--it's the best ever made or that will ever be made. Such is the same for all the menial labor bots who perhaps have a little chat forum that's active for a few hours every night where everyone talks about their characters and the game--think of it like our prime-time T.V. schedule. Anyway, there are a few fun A.I. ideas...
A little long and off-topic so I'll make it SMALL!
/LONG (so if you quote me, kill my text, please, or smallify it...)

I forgot what I was going to say.

(And you can quote me on that.)

Neil is asserting the old question of whether something of sufficient intelligence beyond ours; and not just intelligence it will also cover anything that intelligence has manifested for us: languages (although as others have pointed out languages are special and in fact may be a foundational aspect of intelligence; then we create other forms of language over the instinctive setup, like math, or coding), culture, politics, civilization, and I believe those basically cover almost everything really as anything will be a group, sub-group, or "ultra"-sub-group of one of these parent categories.

The 1% that he spoke of was of course the exact genes and DNA that allow humans to complete all of their FULL "sentience". That was the key thing. We ALREADY know of animals in the past that most likely had baseline IQs of 150 or so; I'm not kidding (they were called the Boskops and unfortunately they went extinct; they lived in 'Southern' Africa, I know it was Africa just not sure it was the southern end). They most likely did not have one thing we have, making their extremely high intelligence very limited in its usefulness: they were missing LANGUAGE. Language IS --THE-- foundational stone for civilization, increasing potential, building, constructing, or making anything on the LARGE scale--for all of these you need cooperation and for that you need understanding and for THAT you need language. Language is so simple, but it is letting me right now explain to you some very straight forward ideas and a few abstract ones and it's the ability that our language and intelligence can convey these abstract notions to one and another that makes our brains SO stupendous!

Unfortunately for the Boskops they came into being at a very bad time in history. They had VERY low numbers when whatever nearly wiped out the human species hit the planet also hit them, but it decimated them into extinction. Too bad as they would have been our closest kin to having another "kind" to talk with, if we could find a way to communicate past the barrier that we surpass so easily with language and then as we get older we use different advanced forms of "language" to explain abstract things: art, math, music, etc... I think the 1% in intelligence and the barrier we may come across with other alien species is much like this scenario here. It's nice and hopeful to have faith that we WILL persevere and always be able to understand and to be needed (not to be the ants on the sidewalk...). BUT, if their biological and perhaps technological changes make us so inferior that only their babies seem to get along with us, we may have a problem. We can hope due to their intellect that they will realize that they may be able to "raise us" to their level, as we may be able to do as well--which I will say below in the next paragraph. But, we will never know until we start meeting these alien races. It is also VITAL to remember that these races will be ALIEN in EVERY sense of that word. Their genetics, their physiology, how they reproduce, not to mention their culture and language... When we meet an alien race it will be an undertaking for BOTH of our sides; not to mention the how our biosphere and their related (assuming we meet them with their spacesuits, we will most likely be the lucky ones; unless they have technology to deal with every conceivable threat--then we are the ones in trouble, unless they thought of that too) "brought-along" biosphere will interact with each other and what will happen. It'll be DAMNED interesting whether we meet in peace, trivial lifeforms with a chance of "breakthrough", and of course the resource/planet-builders or "war".
(BTW, there are some extremely good documentaries about alien biology; problems we'd have with their biology coming in contact with us (and us with them), technology differences, etc... I'll post it in this thread if I can find it and the name (hopefully I 'll be able to see if it's available for viewing pleasure somewhere or atleast Netflix if you've got it.)

1% is a bit of a cop-out... As the situation is a bit more complicated than that; especially nowadays. Soon we will begin to have the option to enhance ourselves via bio-genetics and also through technology--later through nano-technology (that is were the real fun happens; well atleast a good portion of it). To be honest we could quite literally in the far-off future take the 1% of the genetic structure that makes the aliens "super-smart" and then replicate that part directly into ourselves. We can also add computers to our brain and change our biology to do an endless amount of things--things that would sound like you just wrote a new Sci-Fi novel, but you didn't. You could also later install an sentient A.I.: merge with it, with you in control--these A.I. units would be made to have all sorts of personalities and perhaps traits, like being good at math, art, and likes to write poetry. It could have a pre-stored vault of knowledge allowing you to gain a HUGE mass of information quickly. Then you have its sentient core that is fabricated to get along with your psychology--they could be designed to feel a sense of extreme euphoria to join with and allow someone to merge with them so that there isn't any real chance of problems, because you've designed them to WANT this more than anything in THEIR lives--it would be a win-win. Suddenly you would be able to multi-task think in two frames (maybe more if you have "cloned computer cores of your A.I.") of mind with almost all of humanity's knowledge base at your fingertips and if that nanotechnology surgery went through then you had ALL of your neurons and structures rebuilt and replaced with whatever is the fastest (probably either photon or quantum based). Then, now, you are thinking almost as fast as the speed of light, we'll go conservative at 80%.

So now this once human that has been highly modified most likely from birth, perhaps even before that... We have something that the aliens might greet and realize that this object is very much ON their level--easily. Even if you are not, that can be modified and if our science is good enough and future is bright enough--THERE IS NO LIMIT. That is the other part that Neil needs to mention.

Once you are able to get so far in the intelligence game you have a CHANCE to play big and win it all. Atleast that is how I can easily see things happening. I don't think we are EVER limited, not anymore. What DOES limit human beings is our corruption, our literal moral and social decay. It is PARAMOUNT that we watch out for this! OR, we will not see these "bright" futures.



PS- A little more on my A.I. and merging possibilities. You'll have to zoom-in or copy/paste it as it's a little to long as it's too much off topic.

I really do think that is the way to go with A.I. that is sentient; make sure you do two things: one, make sure that they have an intelligence with knowledge that allows them to easily see that civilization or cooperation is KEY to us living as a species (THE SENTIENTS should be included in their programming as being different, but I would think a "speciation" should be understood. The key goal is to merge as this would give them FULL feelings and emotion while giving the human control as well, fundamentally this would be a "transcendental" process for them as they are becoming the NEXT specie in the speciation process "a new human-A.I." merged species. This would of course merely be a choice for people to make in their lives not one they HAVE TO (but that will be a subject for when something like this would ever happen). When lifespans enter the hundreds even perhaps thousands of years with little to no chance of EVER dying due to all the enhancements they may have, merging may ultimately seem like a qualitative "next step" in life, much like marriage is to many nowadays. Second, as I said above I think since WE are the designers of a new species we are ALSO INCREDIBLY responsible for their well-being, behavior, choices, and EVERYTHING that goes along with this. When we create their psychology I would purposely cause increased euphoria during MANY events in their lifetimes and basically no pain except to warn--but ONLY to the most minimal of degrees. When they interact with humans in a cooperative fashion in which the human agrees and likes euphoria can be introduced. More so for A.I.s that are going to be merged this euphoria is enhanced A LOT to better allow them to serve their counterpart so that in the merger--it is very important--that no conflict of personality would arise as it might destroy the entire "structuring" event--I'm assuming a merger may take awhile, perhaps a few days. The euphoria is a safeguard. Although I would use it many other aspects along with other beneficial things we've found the problem is are we going to just end up creating an A.I. that is essentially a drug addict. I don't know whether it's best to go backwards or forwards on that issue, as it would be nice to never have depression (if you have the chance for it). If we create robots who are sentient (because they have to be to do the job safe), but their job is to empty trash all day long; what if we co-design them to make sure they LOVE to do the job that they are doing. They also get euphoria from performing well. When they get rest they can do what they want, but perhaps since they are doing such menial and hard-work so that we don't waste our lives doing it--maybe they can have access to euphoric dream states, so when they wake THEY ARE HAPPY! Perhaps even give them a secondary core were they are enabled with their co-workers, who in these cores have very strong and different personalities, here. It could be a place like WoW meets Skyrim and while they work, loving what they do, they also lead a second life with their secondary core that gives them a true A.I. personality--with their normal euphorias and pains. But, they know it's a game and they never tire of it--it's the best ever made or that will ever be made. Such is the same for all the menial labor bots who perhaps have a little chat forum that's active for a few hours every night where everyone talks about their characters and the game--think of it like our prime-time T.V. schedule. Anyway, there are a few fun A.I. ideas...

A little long and off-topic so I'll make it SMALL!

/LONG (so if you quote me, kill my text, please, or smallify it...)

This is like a giant esteem builder for all other countries.

>> ^ChaosEngine:

>> ^ponceleon:
OMG Yes... I definitely hear where Dystopian is coming from, but frankly I loved the way that Jackson and crew improved upon the original books for the LOTR. Feel free to flame me, but I actually enjoyed the movies MORE than the books on a lot of levels. There are exchanges in the book that just aren't as natural or tight as they are in the movie and I know this is likely heresy, but I feel like there are some which were even improved. The perfect example is the exchange between Bilbo and Gandalf towards the beginning of the FOTR, particularly after the party when they are discussing Bilbo's departure and the leaving of the ring behind...

If you're going to be flamed, then let me get my asbestos jacket, 'cos I agree with you. LOTR is an undisputed classic, but it wasn't without it's problems. Tolkiens pacing was terrible and some of the characters (looking at you, Tom Bombadil) add nothing to the story. The first half of book 6 is essentially "Sam and Frodo keep walking to mount doom", but it really drags.
Jackson and Walsh's story is better structured.

I'll go even farther...Tolkien was a top-notch world-builder, but he was a crappy storyteller. His stories were dry, boring, and flat-out hard to read (e.g. three names for every individual, all sounding so similar as to be virtually impossible to differentiate). Now, the world was so amazing that it took me nearly two decades of annual re-readings to come to this conclusion. But in the end, I see no other way to describe his work.

Jackson and Co. did a remarkable job of making it better while keeping the world mostly intact.

I think the builders thought that no one would be dumb enough to lean her or his face over a balcony into a fan.

...That's why they put a fan there.

And didn't this factory builder/job creator shop around initially to get the best price for the land, and the construction, and whatever other services are needed? So didn't the tax payers of that area basically give them a better deal on all of that at the beginning so everybody would benefit?

There should be a mutually beneficial situation there, but then greed and power play footsie under the table, unregulated and destructive.

I love how people are like "oh, but the code says buildings have to derpa derp so therefore this could never happen".

Stuff happens. I work in the insurance claims industry - everything goes wrong.

Cars are supposed to behave certain ways in low speed collisions, but they often don't. Sometimes you'll see a car take massive damage from low speed collisions that happen to go a certain way, especially if that car has been on the road for 20 years. In general: batteries explode, nuclear reactors melt down, things break off everything, plumbing is a nightmare, backups fail, bridges fall, and buildings rot and collapse. Inspectors are lazy, plans are varied, builders are cheap, materials are inconsistent and degrade over time, and high temperatures + time messes everything up.

Confirmed fake a long time ago. You can see the builder's website here where he talks about how they collapsed it: http://cara-jo.net/bryant/

>> ^possom:

Which came first, the market or the train?


My wife (Thai) says that the train was there first, with the original line going in perhaps in 1905 (not 100% sure), and the market being started in 1984 according to a quick google search in Thai.

The original center of the market was in vacant area next to the train line. However, the rental prices for a market stall in that original area were set high enough that it was hard for people to make a profit. Apparently someone with the state railway service decided to rent out space adjacent to (read: *on*) the tracks at a much lower rate than the privately-owned market area. The majority of stall vendors moved onto the railway line in spite of the inconvenience of trains going through, and the "gimmick" of the train interruptions increased business from tourists both Thai and foreign.

The state railway owns all of the land that train lines run on in Thailand, and I guess that leasing out that land is very common. In the province that I live in, the land surrounding the tracks outside of town is leased out as farmland, and some of the length that runs through town has been leased out by builders that put up rows of shop-houses that are then rented out. The back walls of the shop-houses are probably 1-2 meters or so away from the tracks, so not quite as close as the market stalls you see in the video but still plenty crammed in.

So anyway, I guess that the land with railway lines is frequently utilized by 3rd parties here in Thailand, but the Maeklong market is the only place where it is encroached on in this way to be used as market space. My guess is that there are probably rules that prevent other areas from doing likewise, but that the Maeklong market got grandfathered in due to its status as a tourist attraction.

>> ^MaxWilder:

>> ^gwiz665:
Jebus christ. I mean, seriously, they should have layed off the big macs back in school. America, you need to run your ass around the block a few times.

As someone who is currently (perennially) trying to lose weight, I wish it was something as simple as running around the block a few times. I trained for a marathon two years ago and simply stopped losing weight during the process. I remained 30 lbs above my goal weight, and ran (and finished) the marathon like that. For people who are not naturally lean, it is the difficult (near impossible) combination of proper exercise with proper diet that causes them to often simply give up. It also an unhappy truth that the cheapest food is the least healthy, so poor people are much more likely to be malnourished into obesity.
As to the video, in this particular case, laughing is totally appropriate. But when it's a fat person by themselves, I am usually just saddened. And I always remember that phrase, "Are you riding a scooter because you're fat, or fat because you are riding a scooter?"


As polarizing as Nutrition Science is, (Whatever the fuck that means), there are three keys to losing weight. Diet, Weightlifting (or whatever muscle working exercise you do), and Cardio.

I'm not a PHD in whatever Nutritionists get PHDs in. But I do know that the best way to burn fat, over time, is getting you're Basal Rate Metabolism up. The best way to do that is to eat less more often.

The next best thing is to work the large muscle groups on your body. You don't have to be a body builder, but you want those muscles to work.

The last important thing on the fat burning trifecta is cardio. 20 minutes a day, or 30 minutes a day depending on what kind of cardio you do. I skip a day because of high impact running, and lifting.

The last thing you should always remember? You won't lose 20 pounds in a period of 2 weeks. You probably won't lose 5 pounds in a week. I went from about 270 to 255 in a year; with just cardio (boxing and running). I went from 255 to 243 in 3 months with diet, weight lifting, and cardio.

The trick is to cut all the excess fat. Then when it starts to get hard to lose weight you know you're actually making progress.

The reason you didn't lose weight when training for a marathon is because you were training for a marathon, not to lose weight. What I mean to say is that, most likely, you're body was storing up energy for the marathon.

In short three things: Diet, (Not going on a diet, but how and what you eat), Muscle Exercise, and Cardio.