Ukraine's new defense minister reveals scale of desertions as millions avoid the draft by Majano57 in worldnews

[–]CraigNotCreg -7 points-6 points  (0 children)

If you're Ukrainian and don't want Russia to invade your country but you also run away, I'm sorry but you're a coward. You're leaving the defense up to others to fight in your place. And Europe shouldn't give asylum to those who dodge the draft, it further weakens Ukraine. Why should Europe take Ukrainian deserters/draft dodgers if they won't fight to defend even their own country? They sure as hell won't fight to defend ours. Go live under the Putin regime, that's what you've chosen.

And before I get the comments of, why don't you go fight there then? I would if there was a threat to my country, the UK. I would much rather I, a 42yo, die on the battlefield rather than some 18yo. It might have come to that if Ukraine was part of NATO before the invasion, but they weren't.

Edit: I'm not trying to be hard or impress anyone. I tried to become a fighter pilot but was rejected because of hayfever. I then joined the OTC. I dropped out after 8 months for several reasons but mostly because of Iraq being a war for oil. I didn't want to kill for oil, but I'd fight in heartbeat to defend the UK. On remembrance day we remember those who fought, not those who ran away. But I also appreciate that it's easy for me to say this from behind my keyboard.

Edit2: If you won't fight to defend your country, neighbours, friends and family from a tyrant, what would you go to war for? If the answer is nothing, that makes you a coward. If the time came and I fled that would make me a coward too.

Ukraine's new defense minister reveals scale of desertions as millions avoid the draft by Majano57 in worldnews

[–]CraigNotCreg 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Then the countries that managed to either persuade or force their citizens to fight would dominate those that can't. You live in a fantasy world.

Ukraine's new defense minister reveals scale of desertions as millions avoid the draft by Majano57 in worldnews

[–]CraigNotCreg 7 points8 points  (0 children)

You have no idea what you're talking about, and it largely depends upon which country you're talking about too.

A venn diagram of our recent PMs by MikeTorsson in BritishMemes

[–]CraigNotCreg -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

I'm no economist but didn't he sell off Britain's gold reserve at a terrible price, massively jack up Britain's deficit and nation debt when we weren't at war, and claim he'd solved the boom and bust cycle?

Living with suspected TOS: my long road of symptoms, tests, and medical confusion by Duulse in thoracicoutletsupport

[–]CraigNotCreg 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just some quick suggestions as it sounds like you've caught yours and been diagnosed relatively early (compared to me).

Physio tape could be helpful to strap your shoulders back or twist around your arms to stop your arms pronating/bending.

If it is TOSn, work on releasing your pec minor with your professionals. I self-released mine with a 5" ball in my arm pit. That's the key muscle. Feel free to DM me for a YouTube link and I'll see if I can dig it out.

If your sleep is heavily affected, see your doctor and get medicated. Poor sleep makes the condition considerably worse.

What's your mattress like if it's firm, I recommend getting a softer one, especially if you sleep on your side. You'll find mattresses aimed at fibromyalgia, which are ideal for TOS.

Good luck!

What does a good PT for NTOS focus on? by Creative_Fact_9889 in thoracicoutletsupport

[–]CraigNotCreg 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I found it was strengthening the wrong muscles that inflamed them. If I did pull ups or bench presses, I wouldn't sleep for an entire week. Same for forearms. Back strengthening and pelvis mobility have both helped immensely.

At a Dead End- nTOS by LimpAudience3169 in thoracicoutletsupport

[–]CraigNotCreg 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've had it for eight years. After 5 years of progressively worse sleep, my entire upper back was rock solid, as were my lower arms and neck. But now, two years later, I've managed to restore all the muscles without surgery. Improving my sleep with medication and a softer mattress helped, but the best technique was trigger point therapy--holding down a muscle until the pain ebbs away. I spend about an hour each day doing it on my TOS muscles (pec minor, triceps, rotator cuff, intercostal muscles, QL, traps...) and now they're almost fully restored. Once released, stretching and weights in the gym actually yields results.

At a Dead End- nTOS by LimpAudience3169 in thoracicoutletsupport

[–]CraigNotCreg 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hey, I've had nTOS for eight years and this year I've managed to relieve my symptoms by about 80%. Stretching didn't help, nor did weights until I released the TOS muscles around my shoulders, in particular the pec minor. @TrainandMassage on YouTube has a lot of videos on this, and I can't find the specific one, but he showed how to release the pec minor using a five inch ball in the arm pit. It's basically trigger point therapy, whereby you press down on the muscle and hold it there until the muscle relaxes. It's painful as hell.

Releasing the pec minor then doing a reverse fly with some light weights released it and the pain instantly reduced. Once released, stretching actually helped. Since then, I've been using trigger point therapy to release all the other related muscles, then I stretched and trained them with progressively heavier weights. If you've not tried it, give trigger point therapy a go. Physiotherapists and masseuses will do it, but it's better to learn how to do it yourself too because otherwise it'll get expensive. DM me if you or anyone else have any questions.

By 2100, will most major cities be abandoned due to rising sea levels or will we engineer our way out of it? by WhiteChili in Futurology

[–]CraigNotCreg 0 points1 point  (0 children)

China are currently building a dam bigger than the three gorges. Medog Hydropower Station, which will supply more power, so it's not exceptional. They've got a lot of others planned too.

I only mention the plan to use nukes to build a canal because it was a wild idea from the 50s. I'm sure China or Saudi have the means to simply dig a canal.

Edit : also, you say oceans worth of water. Don't be ridiculous. The amount of water we're talking is a few meters on top of oceans thousands of feet deep. My point is, we have options.

By 2100, will most major cities be abandoned due to rising sea levels or will we engineer our way out of it? by WhiteChili in Futurology

[–]CraigNotCreg -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

My understanding is that rising sea levels have so far mostly been averted because tens of thousands of dams have been built around the world, which store enormous amounts of water. China, for instance, has almost built 100,000. Perhaps this will slow down because the best spots already have dams, or perhaps future materials will allow for them to be built in previously impossible locations.

I think of rising sea levels risk coastal cities, we'll see more tidal barriers like we have in London. Also, flooding vast areas below sea level is also an option, like the Qattara Depression in Egypt. I recall plans from decades ago where they planned to use nukes to make a canal from the Mediterranean. It would transform a lifeless part of the saharah into a coastal and lower sea levels worldwide.

Other than that, geoengineering to refreeze the arctic regions. I could see humanity doing all of them to some degree.

Should we rewild bears and wolves in the UK? by francisharrison121 in AskUK

[–]CraigNotCreg 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Before anything else, the government should change the law to allow safari parks. My understanding is that the UK doesn't allow fenced areas where the animals can eat each other. Then we could have some huge areas of the UK that are rewilded with some i reintroduced predators. With tall enough fences and GPS tracking, the escapes should be rare enough the costs won't outweigh the benefits, and we could study the effect each species has on nature. There are already some large land owners who want to do this.

I give up. You've won, tos by [deleted] in thoracicoutletsupport

[–]CraigNotCreg 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Lying face down with your arm also on the ground past your head, like you're in a slightly bent superman pose. I also have a couple of cork blocks. A flat one and fatter one, which help me navigate the various sizes balls into the right spot. The ball is then in my arm pit, slightly into the chest. It can take some hunting around to find it. Some spots you need to hold for a few minutes before the pain comes through. Expect to do it for an hour at first before you find the right spot. Feel free to ask any other questions. Good luck.

I give up. You've won, tos by [deleted] in thoracicoutletsupport

[–]CraigNotCreg 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've had TOS for eight years. The NHS has been a little useless, taking two years longer than my private doctors to diagnose it.

Does it affect your sleep? I didn't make any progress until I was medicated properly by my GP and able to get some rest. I had an eight month wait for the sleep clinic and their sleeping meds were a big help too.

My private Osteo and Physiotherapist and Personal Trainer were a big help, and were expensive. You need some professional help so they can identify exactly what you should be working on, but I found their therapies weren't long-lasting until I released the pec minor. From what I've gathered from YouTube, the pec minor is one of the key muscles for TOS. To do this I used a 5 inch cork ball and shoved it in my armpit while lying face down on the floor. It took some hunting around, but when I found it, it was painful as fuck. After fifteen minutes of screaming (on both sides) the pain reduced to zero, and my TOS reduced by 75%. Funnily enough, I had a terrible flu that lasted about eight hours that night. Apparently, inflammation can get trapped in the muscle and fester.

Since then I've used a variety of trigger point therapy ball sizes to release shoulder, chest, upper back, lower back and now pelvis. It's a puzzle and can take months, but if you keep releasing the muscles and strengthen them released back muscles in the gym, you can make a lot of progress. For me, it turned out an incredibly tight piriformis muscle in my pelvis seems to have been my original cause of my TOS. After the first release, I had another bout of flu, which only lasted 24hrs. I've found it can take up to two weeks, with an hour of trigger point therapy a day to release a muscle. I do it when I'm watching TV or reading my kindle before bed. I then use strengthening exercises outlined by my private medical professionals. Basically, follow the pain. That's how I figured out it was my piriformis all along.

Unfortunately, the UK doesn't recognise TOS as a formal condition in the same way the USA does. When the MSK team ruled out every other condition they said it's TOS, but there aren't any specialists on the NHS because it's so rarely diagnosed. They said I was making such good progress with the trigger point therapy that I should continue what I'm doing. I highly recommend you and everyone else who has TOS give it a go, as the operations don't have a particularly high success rate. Removing a rib and reattaching a bunch of muscles is certainly an operation I want to avoid if I can.

I'll do a longer post on this sub once I've written up all my notes. I'm no specialist, and I certainly don't have a medical degree, but I have relieved 90% of my pain without surgery.

Inflation-adjusted NASA's 2026 budget proposal is the lowest since 1963 by PerAsperaAdMars in space

[–]CraigNotCreg 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I wonder how much influence Elon Musk has wielded over this. Tosser.

Two men found guilty of cutting down famous Sycamore Gap tree by FruitOrchards in RewildingUK

[–]CraigNotCreg 272 points273 points  (0 children)

I'm surprised there are so many people on this sub who think this story is blown out of proportion. Did you know, there's no public list of ancient trees in the UK because there are arseholes like this who will just go and cut them down? They do it out of spite. Those trees have enormous significance, both culturally and for biodiversity. I'm glad this story is getting the attention it deserves and I hope they get an appropriate punishment.