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Joined: November 18, 2004

What's the deal with your nickname? How did you get it? If your nickname is self-explanatory, then tell everyone when you first started using the internet, and what was the first thing that made you say "wow, this isn't just a place for freaks after all?" Was it a website? Was it an email from a long-lost friend? Go on, spill it.

Weight Loss:

"Surprisingly, we find that over the past several decades, average mid-life body weights have risen among primates and rodents living in research colonies, as well as among feral rodents and domestic dogs and cats. The consistency of these findings among animals living in varying environments, suggests the intriguing possibility that the aetiology of increasing body weight may involve several as-of-yet unidentified and/or poorly understood factors (e.g. viral pathogens, epigenetic factors). This finding may eventually enhance the discovery and fuller elucidation of other factors that have contributed to the recent rise in obesity rates. "

"The implications were clear. There is a reason that fat people cannot stay thin after they diet and that thin people cannot stay fat when they force themselves to gain weight. The body's metabolism speeds up or slows down to keep weight within a narrow range. Gain weight and the metabolism can as much as double; lose weight and it can slow to half its original speed."

"Maintenance of a reduced or elevated body weight is associated with compensatory changes in energy expenditure, which oppose the maintenance of a body weight that is different from the usual weight."

These studies show that one third to two thirds of dieters regain more weight than they lost on their diets, and these studies likely underestimate the extent to which dieting is counterproductive because of several methodological problems, all of which bias the studies toward showing successful weight loss maintenance. In addition, the studies do not provide consistent evidence that dieting results in significant health improvements, regardless of weight change. In sum, there is little support for the notion that diets lead to lasting weight loss or health benefits.

The Dominance Controversy:

This dog is on its side because it is exhausted. The leash around her neck tightens every time she struggles and cuts off her air supply. This decreases (or helps to decrease) her stamina. At one point when Emily is on her back she flails and bares her teeth aggressively at Cesar Millan as she's trying to get away. This is probably the first time she's directed aggression towards a human. Millan controls her and does not let her get up – but most likely if her owners try this they will be bitten. Dogs are smart enough to distinguish which people can physically dominate or control them and which people cannot.

My best comment in a deleted chatfilter AskMe:

Are we talking virus-zombie, or voodoo-zombie? The difference being that in virus-zombie world, the virus kills people AND turns them into a zombie. In voodoo-zombie world, all dead people turn into zombies, and sometimes a bit happens to kill them. In other words, in voodoo-zombie world, the zombie bite is irrelevant. Every dead person turns undead.

Are we talking classic vampire (bit by a vampire, die, come back as the walking undead), or are we talking Anne Rice vampire (vampire bite just kills you, unless you drink vampire blood), or are we talking gothic vampire (I think that's something along the lines of the vampire has to completely drain your blood - the kind of vampire that tyllwin is talking about).

For classic vampire, it is much like voodoo zombie, except that it automatically kills you. I would say that in voodoo zombie vs. classic vampire, then you would be a zombie vampire - double undead. For other kinds of vampire, the vampire bite itself is irrelevant.

Werewolf is pretty straight-forward, mythologically. Bitten by a were-wolf == werewolf. But once your die, your body doesn't keep changing into a werewolf, so undead do not keep changing into werewolves.

I would say, based on gothic vampire, voodoo zombie, and regular old werewolf, that the werewolf bite would win and the person would be a werewolf mesmerized by a vampire, until the person died, at which point they would be a regular old zombie.

Based on Anne Rice vampire, virus zombie, and regular old werewolf, then zombie would win.

Based classic vampire, any zombie, any werewolf, the person would be a werewolf until they died, at which point they would be a zombie vampire.