That assault on the subway -- that happened to me at 11 am on a Sunday in NYC. Beautiful sunny day. Outside. I stopped to watch a street vendor with a crowd, and someone was jostling me from behind, I thought to see better.

I realized he was jostling me rhythmically and panting.

I had just finished a self defense class, so I thought I was prepared to deal with it. I turned.... and looked down. This tiny guy was standing behind me, with a tent in his pants. I was 6 inches taller than him, and outweighed him by probably 50 pounds. He just looked up at me and... shrugged. Shrugged and smiled.

I had the physical skills to decimate him, but we were taught in class to use the skills to protect ourselves, not to attack.

I wasn't in danger. So I turned on my heel and walked away. Joined my friend, laughing. I'm a tourist in NYC for six hours, and I get sexually "assaulted." How funny!

It wasn't funny 15 minutes later. I started crying, just like this woman. I spent the day with my back against the wall where ever I went. I couldn't stand to have someone behind me. I kept feeling him on my ass. All day long.

I finally asked my friend to replace the "muscle memory." So she put her hand on my butt where he had assaulted me, and said soothing words.

That worked.

For six months. Until I was standing in line for a movie back home, and the man behind me had a cold. I could hear him breathing and I internally flipped out. I kept moving so he wouldn;t be behind me, but he wanted to stay in line, and kept getting behind me.

I went into the theater, took a seat, and sobbed.

Over something that didn't physically threaten me.

I had guilt over how I handled it. I had just taken that self defense course, and I had heard a story that amused the hell out of me.

A woman was on a bus, rush hour, pressed into the crowd, when a guy started groping her.

Know what she did?

She said LOUDLY so EVERYONE COULD HEAR -- I want you all to know that THIS MAN, THIS MAN RIGHT HERE, is touching me. I did not GIVE HIM PERMISSION TO TOUCH ME.

He slunk away. He left her alone.

I wish that this video offered solutions.

It was frustrating to know that the blonde woman was in a car full of people, and she didn't have a voice. She wasn't taught to speak up and make a scene.

And it is months later, and because she didn't speak, she still carries that.

And it is months later, and she didn't offer a solution based on her experience. She is still caught.

I'll tell you one thing -- that happens to me again?

I'M SPEAKING UP. Calmly. Loudly. Assertively. With conviction.

THIS MAN. THIS MAN RIGHT HERE.

If all women did that, this crap would stop.

They count on us staying silent.

Tell this to the women you love. Tell them to speak up if they feel safe -- and a crowded bus, a crowded subway car? You are surrounded by people. Nothing is going to happen to you.

They operate in the dark. They operate in silence. They count on your embarrassment.

Turn it on them, embarrass the bloody hell out of them and this crap will end.

It's the epitome of ignorance to jump to the conclusion that because one sees one side being far worse than the other, that person must be promoting the 'lesser evil'.
It's just as ignorant to jump to the conclusion that empathy for the Palestinian civilians trapped in the giant concentration camp that is Gaza is tantamount to all out support for Hamas and it's tactics. That's a total straw man argument made by those that can't answer the actual issues of an expansionist Israel flexing it's significant military muscles against a trapped, helpless, completely defenseless population that has already been ghettoized into the stone age without qualm, using the blatantly ridiculous excuse of 'defense' for a purely offensive military campaign against a civilian 'quasi-refugee' population. It seems to me that people who make that argument have made the ignant (a stubborn kind of ignorance that can't be cured by education) decision to buy into the (quite well produced, I must admit) Israeli propaganda machine and ignore the indisputable facts.
Both sides are at fault, wrong, bloodthirsty, and bad, one side IS FAR MORE at fault, wrong, bad, and bloodthirsty...or if not more bloodthirsty then at least far better at blood lust sating without conscience.

Well, you were the one that initially compared your marriage fidelity (or hypothetical lack thereof) to virtuous (or immoral) behaviours. You can't really compare one side (the behaviours) and then complain about a comparison of the (dis)incentives.

Both are systems of reward and punishment. You incentivise desired behaviours and disincentivise undesired ones. Whether the incentive is a tax break or an emotional response is irrelevant.

But let's say that you're right and there is a distinction between them. It still doesn't solve the problem of encouraging moral behaviour.

If I'm the CEO of a company and I make a decision that makes me and my family better off, everyone is happier, right? Moral bonus all round.

Except maybe my decision impacts someone else profoundly negatively. Halfway around the world, someones working conditions got much worse. Locally someone got laid off so I could employ the people with the crap working conditions. I saved money on environmental standards now at the cost of a problem in the future.

But none of that has an immediate social or personal consequence to me. I just bought a boat and took my family sailing and they're happy!!

The fact is that with the best will in the world, it's really easy for those with power to abuse it, and no, morality does not keep them in check. It might in a few individual cases, but those are dwarfed by the colossal atrocities perpetrated by those whose morality fails to keep their power in check.

Again, look at the current banking system. Please don't tell me you think there are moral people in charge of that, and for the love of all that is holy, please don't tell me that we just need to give them the opportunity to exercise their moral muscle.

The problem with this libertarian philosophy is that it has been the default position throughout history and the outcome has been spectacularly bad.
Libertarians counter this by claiming that we haven't had a "true" libertarian system, which to me is akin to trying to put out a fire with gasoline and then when it doesn't work, claiming we didn't add enough gasoline.

ChaosE - This may be a matter of semantics and definitions. Depending on how you define the terms, I agree with your point.

And, in moral philosophy, if it is not your _choice_, it is not an ethical choice. Sorry if this is philosophical bullshit, but think about it: your "not killing someone" because you don't have the motivation or means is not a virtuous choice, it is simply not NOT an unethical one. It is the lack of a negative, not the presence of a positive. Virtue is about our choices, not our defaults.

Virtue is like building a muscle. The virtue is demonstrated/evidenced in building my strength (taking the time and focus to work out and be disciplined), not in the fact that I am strong. If I stop working out, my muscle will decay.

This is like virtue. In a strange way, once we have habituated a virtuous choice to routine/automatic mode, it is no longer a virtuous choice. It was virtuous to build the habit, but it is not virtuous when it is automatic.

Again, it is philosophical quibbling/definitions, but it points to a real distinction that matters in our moment by moment experience. As moral philosophers put it, morality is about what you do in the face of difficulty and temptation, not when things are automatic. It is easy to be nice to people when life is going great for you. It is hard to be nice to others when things are stressful and falling apart. THAT is where the rubber of morality meets the road of reality/daily life. That is where virtue shows up (or doesn't).

I am married and monogamy is part of my commitment. If no other woman would deign to sleep with me, my not sleeping with them is no indication of my virtue. It is only in the face of propositions to which I say "no" that I am exercising the virtue of fidelity.

In this sense, the more we are responsible for our own choices, the more those choice CAN be virtuous and BUILD our virtuous character. In contrast, when other people make our choices for us, we neither act virtuously nor build virtuous character.

I am sure this is true in your own life. If you donate time/money/effort to a charitable cause, it impacts you personally and powerfully. When the government takes taxes from your paycheck to pay for social programs, it is impersonal and has virtually zero impact on your character.

Or, that is one way of looking at it - which the video is all about.

It's actually muscle yogurt. (patent pending.)

Half the links I tried to click on didn't work............

I want my muscle milk.

I think the noose does choke them slightly, dog necks aren't like humans. They got a lot more muscle...and their hide to protect their airway and blood flow/oxygen circulation.

This scene is pretty close to how it goes down in the book, save a little variation in how the final blow is administered.

I also completely disagree, I think the director completely nailed it. It plays up to a lifetime of predictable cliché's only to turn them right around and give us a dose of cold hard reality.

Hero's frequently loose, villains frequently win, overconfidence is a weakness and having a just cause is no guarantee of victory.

Oberyn wins the fight but allows his need for vengeance to cloud his judgement. He starts calm and works himself into more and more of a frenzy over a neurosis he has carried for many years. IMHO this was portrayed pretty authentically, he starts calm (as he has learned to be) but as the fight progresses he allows the guard to drop and the raging emotions to manifest properly.

Now he can afford to let these bottled up feeling out properly, the mountain is right there and soon he will kill him! Throw in some adrenaline and the anticipation of that moment overwhelms the self control that earned him the title red viper.

I also don't see how you can describe the mountain as a "super ninja" here. Everything he does at the end is an exercise in brute strength, let's not forget he's wearing mailed fists, the blow to the mouth need not be especially strong or quick to do the damage. All he does after that is roll on top of him with the last bit of strength and rage he has (spurred on by his "beetle crushing" fuck everything mindset). Subsequently crushing the skull has more to do with his upper body weight as his hands alone.

A massive strong man yanks someone's legs out from under them, punches them in the mouth and then climbs on top (while they are stunned) to finish the job.

Being run through doesn't necessarily stop one's muscles from working until the blood loss kicks in. Doubly so with the adrenaline of a life or death fight (and the anaesthetic effect massive trauma has on the nervous system). There are countless stories of soldiers and criminals being mortally wounded by multiple shots to the chest who continued attacking till the blood loss overcame them. Gregor Clegane is exactly the sort of psycho who might exhibit such bloody minded behaviour.

I might also remind you that the Mountain has one more than one occasion been described as "swifter than might be expected for a man of such stature" i.e. not a lumbering hulk. He gets several blows in on Oberyn during the fight. Many of the swings are extremely heavy but they are calculated moves from an expert fighter who is more than capable of moving quickly when needed.

Oberyn is quicker, but the Mountain is not exactly slow (that's one of the reasons why the Mountain is/was formerly undefeated, he's big but can still move relatively quickly for his size).

Orgasms can really flex the muscles.

I checked and apparently red meat is made from cow muscles. wow, who knew???

Cyclist here too, have been for 35 years... The most traffic laws i break involve things that stops me using the only advantage over walking, inertia. That means running on red lights is common but only if it's totally empty crossing.. People who use motors to go forward don't have to use muscles so it doesn't always enter their minds that cyclists rely on rolling forward all the time, stopping as few times as possible. That's why cyclists need to bend the rules pretty often, it just works a lot better for all of us. Of course i could stop at red lights, specially if it's button activated, i could reserve that 20s instead of using 3s making everyone wait... But here it has been a lot more common to use cycles and drivers do behave well on intersections letting that momentum to carry us over and saving time from everyone. We just can't count on it, i would say 80% do it well, it's that 20% that feels hurt if they have to yeild to a puny sack of meat riding on a tubular frame..

Last winter was brutal, instead of snow we had ice that melted a bit during the day and froze overnight. Then it was a case of survival with a bike and things from my teens started to bother me: cars that don't understand they cant tip over and hurt them selves, going thru safe, dry routes became a real fight. When i was school age, i had to to cycle on the road, with cars, no shoulder cause of snowbanks, just four deep tracks that the cars had made. The times the car horns scared me when the motorists blamed me for driving on the only piece of road i could do so, width of maybe 20cm with ice on both sides.. man., you couldn't get out of those without falling spectacularly while the cars of course could, they just were lazy. Now a days there is a cycle road built separately there but the attitude became obvious "roads are for cars, if you don't have one, stay at home..."

Clearly, these dogs did NOT spend their entire lives isolated in cages, or their muscles would have been atrophied to the point where they could barely move, let alone run around and socialize as they did when released into the yard for the first time. I'm not an apologist for animal experimentation, but let's be accurate, folks - these dogs all look to be in excellent physical and emotional condition.

Reluctantly crouched at the starting line,
Engines pumping and thumping in time.
The green light flashes, the flags go up.
Churning and burning, they yearn for the cup.
They deftly maneuver and muscle for rank,
Fuel burning fast on an empty tank.
Reckless and wild, they pour through the turns.
Their prowess is potent and secretly stearn.
As they speed through the finish, the flags go down.
The fans get up and they get out of town.
The arena is empty except for one man,
Still driving and striving as fast as he can.
The sun has gone down and the moon has come up,
And long ago somebody left with the cup.
But he's driving and striving and hugging the turns.
And thinking of someone for whom he still burns.

He's going the distance.
He's going for speed.
She's all alone (All alone!)
All alone in her time of need.
Because he's racing and pacing and plotting the course,
He's fighting and biting and riding on his horse,
He's going the distance.

No trophy, no flowers, no flashbulbs, no wine,
He's haunted by something he cannot define.
Bowel-shaking earthquakes of doubt and remorse,
Assail him, impale him with monster-truck force.
In his mind, he's still driving, still making the grade.
She's hoping in time that her memories will fade.
Cause he's racing and pacing and plotting the course,
He's fighting and biting and riding on his horse.
The sun has gone down and the moon has come up,
And long ago somebody left with the cup.
But he's striving and driving and hugging the turns.
And thinking of someone for whom he still burns.

Cause he's going the distance.
He's going for speed.
She's all alone (All alone!)
All alone in her time of need.
Because he's racing and pacing and plotting the course,
He's fighting and biting and riding on his horse.
He's racing and pacing and plotting the course,
He's fighting and biting and riding on his horse.
He's going the distance.
He's going for speed.
He's going the distance.

From the article:
For Barnes, the device needed to be able to take cues from the human body. The lab designed a prosthesis that uses a technique called electromyography to pick up on electrical signals in the upper arm muscles. By tensing his biceps, Barnes controls a small motor that changes how tightly the prosthetic arm grips the drumstick and how quickly it moves, vital skills for a drummer.

The researchers then added another layer of complexity: a second, autonomous drumstick on the robot arm (see photo). This second stick, controlled via its own motor, uses a microphone and an accelerometer to sense the rhythm Barnes is playing, as well as music from any nearby musicians. An algorithm then produces a new beat with a complementary rhythm and melody, modelled on the music of jazz greats like John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk.

With this extra artificial intelligence, human and machine combine to make Barnes a kind of "superhuman drummer", Weinberg says.

I grew up on a farm, and my dad used to work hard to lodge a rooster's head between two railroad spikes so that he could extend the neck and dispatch the rooster with a quick axe/hatchet to the neck. The rooster knows something is up, so it is scared and looking for any possible escape, and it takes a lot of work to get/hold them in position. Then an older fella visited the house one time and showed us this technique.

Yep, it works so well that you can just draw the line, lay the rooster down and "hypnotize" it, walk away and come back with your axe ... and it'll just wait right there patiently until the thwock.

Of course, then it'll still get up and run around headless; but I am told that is more of a muscles unwinding issue than any result of headless consciousness.