IsNotANovelty

Can you elaborate on this? What caused the crack? Was it a surface crack or all the way through to the cockpit? Was your main fear not being able to see or being afraid the windshield would shatter leaving you exposed to 500mph freezing air with no cabin pressure? Is this, to your knowledge, something that has happened before/since to other pilots?

It's sad that a doctor is spewing these half-truths. Yes, metabolic expenditure decreases as you decrease caloric consumption and lose weight, but most of that reduction can be accounted for by the loss of body mass. (Source) Less body mass = less energy needed to maintain it.

So, no, physical activity is not needed to break through a weight loss plateau. If weight loss begins to plateau, the person simply needs to decrease their caloric intake further. For example, if a person is maintaining weight at 2000 calories, and they reduce to 1800 calories and lose 10 pounds, then they might not be able to lose more at 1800 calories because their body with 10 fewer pounds only needs 1800 calories to maintain. But, if they further reduced to 1600 calories at this point, they could continue to lose weight.

The numbers are examples, but the point is, there is some level of caloric intake for every person on Earth that will cause them to lose weight (unless they literally have no body fat, in which case they will die, which is what actual starvation is, not some excuse that obese people make for why they can't lose weight).

Further reading:

https://examine.com/nutrition/how-do-i-stay-out-of-starvation-mode

Isn't "stopping the meter" and "going off duty" with a passenger in the car a big no-no? Isn't that usually how the "Uber driver beat and robbed passenger" stories start?

as someone firmly and permanently in the middle class

Not if the TPP has anything to say about it.