DovidBT

It is no different then Bishul, that putting it on the fire is all that counts, even though that it is being cooked at a later point in Shabbos, as long as you did it before Shabbos it is fine.

In addition to putting the uncooked food on the fire before Shabbos, doesn’t the cooking process have to be at least 50% completed before the onset of Shabbos? I’m only asking for clarification. This probably isn’t relevant to the main discussion here.

idolater’s scotch – is this Purim Torah?

No. After a month of Daf Yomi-ing Avodah Zarah, I see idolaters everywhere.

It’s a slippery slope. Today drink an idolater’s scotch, tomorrow marry his daughter.

And if the student was not wearing the backpack when the person started shooting?

Or what if the shooter aims for a part of the body not covered by the backpack?

I think the theory is that the students would crouch down and use the backpacks as shields.

The real purpose, of course, is for the businesses that market the backpacks to profit from parents who buy them as a useless gesture, so that they can pretend they’re protecting their children.

Has a bulletproof backpack ever saved someone from injury or death?

Make it common practice for everyone to be armed, and trained in self-defense.

Also, anti-Semites are more than happy to point out that some of us don’t regard non-Jews as quite human and are therefore enemies of the country they live in.

Along those lines, I’ve wondered whether non-Jews or non-religious Jews encounter this site, and try to figure out what some of the discussions are about. Do they think that the participants are weird, or even dangerous?

don’t see why prevalence should change the din, …

What about the practice of men using mirrors for cosmetic purposes? Is that a reasonable analogy?

In fact more and more goyische restaurants no longer accept cash.

How can that be legal? U.S. currency contains the text, “This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private”.

@keith

I’m a BT, like you. I’ve read all the books you mentioned in your earlier post.

My experience has been that the more Torah study and mitzvos I bring into my life, the less space and desire there is for non-essential secular activities. By Torah study, I’m including Talmud, halachos, etc.

So it’s not so much a matter of consciously excluding the secular. It seems to happen automatically.

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons form BP-A0291 (Furlough Application – Approval and Record) contains the following:

It has been determined that consumption of poppy seeds may cause a positive drug test which may result in disciplinary action. As a condition of my participation in community programs, I will not consume any poppy seeds or items containing poppy seeds.

This form can be viewed at the Federal Bureau of Prisons web site, bop DOT gov.

If Watergate happened in the current political climate, it would be news for a week, and then forgotten as soon as the media finds something else to be outraged about.

How does the folded hat know how to return to its original shape?

so anyone have any ideas how to improve the standards of the coffeeroom or are you too busy circulating lashon hara?

In order to make a post, you must take an online class in a relevant middah, such as anavah, and pass a test on the content.

I’m not doubting the existence of G-d, but I don’t think it’s possible to prove it or disprove it.

An atheist could argue that everything in the above post can be explained by science. For example, from an atheist’s perspective, since we’re part of nature, we’re programmed by evolution to find nature beautiful.

I have the credentials.

The hard part is not quitting, but avoiding starting again. After quitting, the desire to smoke can last for months or years. I used to dream about smoking. I would even looking forward to bedtime so that I could “dream-smoke”. 🙂

Some things I found helpful:

1.Remove, or pack away, everything that reminds you of smoking: ashtrays, matches, etc. Of course you may still need matches to light Shabbos candles, but at least keep the matches out of reach the rest of the time. I kept some cigarettes on hand so that I wouldn’t panic, but I packed them away so that they were out of sight and it would take several minutes to access them.

2. Try to avoid going to places where other people may be smoking.

3. Do regular cardiovascular exercise. It needs to be of sufficient intensity that you have to breathe very deeply. With each breath, you’re reminded that you wouldn’t be able to do that if you smoked.

In the area of autonomous vehicle design, this actually has practical implications.

From the Wikipedia article on “Trolley problem”:

In 2016, the government of Germany constituted an ethical commission that addressed the implications of autonomous driving. As a result, the commission defined 20 rules for autonomous and connected driving, which will be obligatory for upcoming laws regarding the production of autonomous cars.

The article links to the commission’s report (a downloadable .pdf), which lists their 20 rules. It’s not clear to me whether they addressed this problem, but “rule 9” states:

In the event of unavoidable accident situations, any distinction based on personal features (age, gender, physical or mental constitution) is strictly prohibited. It is also prohibited to offset victims against one another. General programming to reduce the number of personal injuries may be justifiable. Those parties involved in the generation of mobility risks must not sacrifice non-involved parties.

Because those are more useful but also less fun.

What could be more fun than flying on a giant bird? You could even fly between the legs of the giant cows.

no one has explained why the shlemeil in Hawaii who pushed the wrong button to send out the false alert could not have typed in “false alarm” and blasted it out to the same distribution list used for the initial alarm.

There was probably no option for doing that.

IMO, the sirens + EBS radio stations are superior to the modern “high tech” approach.

This is a test of the Emergency Broadcast System

Back in those days, everyone had radios, with the EBS frequencies marked on them. As i recall, one of them was 640 KHz (AM). If there had been an announcement like the one in Hawaii, people would have quickly determined it to be a false alarm by tuning their radios to that frequency.

(Since this is the Rants forum …)

What’s the purpose of the Bar Mitzvah “event”?

Is it primarily a family reunion, or is a recognition of the boy becoming a Bar Mitzvah?

If the latter, isnt it “fake” to give the boy special instruction to present the illusion that he has the ability to read any part of the Torah and/or the Prophets?

We have invested virtually nothing in upgrading our emergency preparedness since the end of the cold war.

The U.S.’s emergency preparedness in the cold war era was pretty silly. There were sheltering provisions for a small fraction of the population, but for most it was “duck and cover”.

the end of the cold war

What kind of war are we in now? Cold, warm, tepid? Whatever kind it is, it’s been going on since the early 90s.

@Chabadshlucha

What’s the source for assigning interpretions to Hebrew letters in this manner?

You’re all missing the big picture here.

If the liberals all start smoking grass, that will keep them passive, effectively removing them as a political force.

If the military air-dropped massive amounts of the stuff on the terrorists, they’d stop doing terrorism.

If the police distributed free stuff to the violent mobs, they’d sit around smoking the stuff instead of doing violence.

Some rhinoplasty is cosmetic, some is to repair issues such as a deviated septum.

I had a surgical procedure to correct a deviated septum. The procedure was called septoplasty, not rhinoplasty. But I’m not an expert on medical terminology; maybe the terms are used interchangeably.

In the context of this topic, I suppose that a deviated septum would fall into the category of items that warrant discosure.