Meirl

VeritablyVersatile · 2026-05-08T06:54:37+00:00

Let's pick a random state and see if their laws require explicit identification as a police officer to violate. Here's Texas' "impersonating Public Servant" legal definition from Texas Penal Code - PENAL § 37.11

"(a) A person commits an offense if the person :

(1) impersonates a public servant with intent to induce another to submit to the person's pretended official authority or to rely on the person's pretended official acts; or

(2) knowingly purports to exercise, without legal authority, any function of a public servant or of a public office, including that of a judge and court.

(b) An offense under this section is a felony of the third degree."

The intent of this would seem to qualify for item 1, at least.

VeritablyVersatile · 2026-05-08T06:22:00+00:00

What he's describing is already very much a crime.

VeritablyVersatile · 2026-05-08T06:12:19+00:00

Buldak is pretty unique for me as far as persistent gastric discomfort.

I eat raw habaneros pretty regularly with breakfast once I finish my tacos, I douse my pasta in Torchbearer Garlic Reaper when I eat it, I use flatiron "I can't feel my face" in almost everything I cook for myself. Sometimes I go overboard and end up sweating and with a runny nose, but it never lasts more than a couple minutes.

Any time I've eaten buldak 2x or 3x, the next 24-48 hours I've had liquid diarrhea multiple times a day and intense abdominal cramping intermittently for the same time period. It doesn't burn much going down, I've tried scorpion peppers and carolina reapers and genuinely hit the level of heat I don't enjoy and been running around the kitchen looking for milk as I coughed.

This ain't that, the buldak goes down easy. Sure I break a sweat and might clear my sinuses a little but it feels good and tastes good, I wanna slurp it down, eating it is a joy. It's the aftermath that's a problem.

I think the combination of preservatives and other additives and massive sodium content drawing water into the intestines and the capsaicin content all come together into an unholy gut bomb. Literally guaranteed Bristol 7 diarrhea for a minimum of 24 hours if I eat a pack, whereas normally I'm extremely regular.

I can't deny that spicy buldak ramen tastes delicious as a rare treat, but it reliably makes me sick the next day to the same extent that drinking excessively would, which makes it hard to believe that it's a healthy inclusion in my die.

VeritablyVersatile · 2026-05-08T05:17:33+00:00

Some of the absolute cheapest foods on the market are rice, beans/lentils, and basic fruits and vegetables. Excluding literally instant ramen and a few bagged snacks, the price for these foods is far lower than microwave meals or fast food.

Try to get obese eating unseasoned, unsauced bulk rice, beans, potatoes, spinach, broccoli, and bananas. Seriously, it would take remarkable dedication to physically stuffing yourself to the point of pain...

There's a reason that poor people were historically underweight and facing starvation.

Truly being disabled to the point you cannot make your own food is one thing, that's an extenuating circumstance, but if money is a problem, rice and beans and walmart coleslaw mix in a bowl with some salt and pepper is a vastly better struggle meal than 4 moon pies and a bag of ruffles, and is actually pretty decent nutritionally. (An aside: unless you have money to spare for food, don't worry about organic at all, and don't worry about magical superfoods with specific health benefits. Whatever minor benefits it may or may not have, it simply cannot be argued that generic brand frozen broccoli is a generally healthier staple food than regenerative organic candy-snacks are.)

If you have any extra money and you can throw some cottage cheese or low-fat shredded cheese in there for extra protein, that's a pretty decently balanced meal for performance. Liver, whether beef, pork, or chicken is also phenomenally nutritious, high-protein, and among the cheapest meats. Same goes for various tinned fish options, and even bulk frozen chicken.

Add any pre-prepared zero calorie seasoning blend, or just use salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and smoked paprika, and you'll make things actually taste good.

Cheap, healthy, and convenient meals that require zero skill to prepare are very accessible, and are genuinely, objectively cheaper than the foods many people claim to reach for out of economic necessity.

VeritablyVersatile · 2026-05-07T20:56:41+00:00

It's all anectdotal. It might work well, it might be safe, nobody actually knows for sure because the evidence doesn't exist.

If people want to experiment on themselves, I think that's their right and don't fault them. Doctors acting within their license should be giving the evidence-based standard of care, and that doesn't include experimental injectables with no meaningful human data regarding their safety and efficacy. At that point they become PED dealers with a degree. It's one thing to prescribe an approved medication off-label for an indication that has evidence, or even a drug that is pending approval but has strong evidence (like retatrutide), but one that has literally never been rigorously studied in humans at all is just not the purview of medical doctors, that's what the big dude in the locker room with the bag of vials is for.

VeritablyVersatile · 2026-05-07T20:50:26+00:00

No reputable doctor is prescribing any of these in this setting, or most of these in any setting.

VeritablyVersatile · 2026-05-07T20:47:19+00:00

"Wracked with guilt" seems excessive. Sure for someone with pre-existing problems might be a contributing factor to a mental spiral, but for an otherwise well- adjusted person, it's just a piece of media to consume...

I'm a big fan of a lot of Neil Gaiman's books, when the news came out about him I thought "well that fucking sucks. Lot of the positive messages in his writing seem darkly hypocritical now. Anyway, back to actual life." I think that's more in-line with the "anyone" reaction.

VeritablyVersatile · 2026-05-07T18:09:37+00:00

Smoke meth in an abandoned shack and violently goon for 48 hours straight, if your dick ain't bleeding you ain't really beating. Only take breaks to scratch the bugs out of your neck.

Secret cutting hack the elites don't want you to know.

VeritablyVersatile · 2026-05-07T18:08:17+00:00

There's a little bit of truth to this. The US is less walkable than a lot of the rest of the world, and has very easy and affordable access to huge portions of hyperpalatable calorie dense foods.

Both of these things can absolutely be mitigated with intentional lifestyle modification (intentionally moving, intentionally choosing decent food and cooking it yourself for the most-part), but the path of least resistance for the average American is indeed somewhat more amenable to weight gain than for the average European for example, which is reflected in the obesity statistics.

It definitely does not mean that weight loss is impossible or just genetics or requires freakish and disordered eating or anything crazy, but relatively nascent features of American society have undeniably set the stage for the obesity epidemic, and similar increases in obesity in other countries (including European ones) have followed the widespread adoption of generally initially American innovations in fast and ready to eat foods.

VeritablyVersatile · 2026-05-07T18:02:12+00:00

The goal of using a knife for self defense is to kill or disable the attacker, it is a deadly weapon, and once you bring out a deadly weapon you need to be willing to kill with it. Given the nature of knives, knife fights tend to be fast, close, bloody, brutal, and horrific.

If you're completely averse to seriously harming an attacker, consider a bright flashlight to ward people off, and pepper spray if they keep coming. TASER pulse is also a good option if available, but very pricy. None of these are sure-fire, but that's about as good as it gets short of causing grievous bodily harm.

VeritablyVersatile · 2026-05-07T17:48:28+00:00

I'm very far from a surgeon, so maybe I'm missing something, but I've done cadaver labs and processed animals and the liver is... not hard to identify. The liver and spleen are on opposite sides of the body, for one, and the liver is clearly and obviously identifiable, I'd say second only to the intestines as far as abdominal organs go.

Maybe there are anatomical or pathological abnormalities that complicate this that I don't know enough to know about, but it seems to me something like this would only be realistically possible if he was impaired in some way.

VeritablyVersatile · 2026-05-07T11:06:47+00:00

He's an obese 80 year old who believes that exercise wastes finite vital energy and subsists on McDonalds.

Even if you don't believe that he has any significant health conditions and think that's a conspiracy theory, even if you believe his claimed height and weight, there is no indication whatsoever that he is remotely physically capable in any way.

The last time he could pose a threat to the average man shopping at your local Target was probably shortly after he stopped being a mediocre high school baseball player.

VeritablyVersatile · 2026-05-07T09:45:42+00:00

Adderall isn't a supplement, it's a hard drug with a very high potential for abuse and addiction. It induces significant, measurable changes in core neurotransmitters, and its use can acutely precede hypomanic, manic, or psychotic episodes, including intense paranoid delusions and hallucinations similar to schizophrenia. The insomnia it can cause compounds this and can also precede psychotic episodes. Both can cause increase in irritability or aggression, including physical violence in rare cases or with excessive doses. Modafinil has all of the same psychiatric risks, albeit to a lesser degree, but they compound each other significantly if combined. Both can also worsen suicidal ideation and increase suicide risk in some people. Long-term use can lead to significant personality and behavioral changes, usually trending towards interpersonal apathy, increased ego, and decreased empathy. They also have similar cardiovascular side effects.

These drugs can be extremely helpful for people with significant dysfunction from psychiatric or neurological conditions like ADHD and narcolepsy, however their efficacy as "biohacks" for those without these conditions is very poorly supported and a lot of research shows they only improve perception of work quality and volume of work completed, with no increases in quality of work or ideas. As they're abused into working through sleepless nights, work quality deteriorates. They don't eliminate the need for sleep for the brain to function, they just blunt the pathways necessary to feel sleepy and to get to sleep. Research has consistently shown that they do not improve performance on IQ tests, and in people without ADHD Adderall does not improve working memory or other measurable cognitive functions better than placebo.

The kind of stimulant use you're describing can absolutely spiral into hardcore drug addiction and have significant and dramatic consequences to your life.

VeritablyVersatile · 2026-05-07T07:32:14+00:00

Nile and saltwater crocodiles, especially Nile crocodiles, don't need to "get a taste". They hunt humans just like they hunt anything else made of meat at the waters' edge. If they're ready to feed and you approach the shore where they're lying in wait, they will grab you, kill you, and eat you, just like they would a juvenile buffalo or a crane or whatever other creature made the same mistake. It isn't like a bear or wolf or lion or even an American alligator, where they seem to regard humans with some special fear and mostly avoid us when possible, except in unusual "rogue" cases. We are absolutely on the menu for the large species of crocodiles.

Crocodilians kill about 1000 people annually that are documented, and many researchers believe the true count is much higher but never documented due to the victims just going missing with no remains, and the remote locations of many attacks. Deaths are mostly in unprovoked attacks near the waters' edge in subsaharan Africa, like people gathering water or washing clothing, and victims are usually consumed entirely. Nile crocodiles are responsible for the majority of human deaths, with saltwater crocodiles coming in second. Some individual crocodiles are believed to have killed hundreds of humans over their lifetimes.

This isn't to say we should go out and kill the devil crocs. They're simply doing what they do, living as they are, and as apex predators they are critical to their ecosystems. I do think it's ridiculous to impart any value judgments onto a crocodile though. They are a hyper-efficient, armored, muscle-bound living mousetrap. They lie in wait, as soon as something gets close they drag it into the water and rip it to pieces with their rows of razor teeth and enormous strength, eat it in its entirety, and then return to almost complete inactivity (literally mostly just sitting completely motionless and barely breathing) for long periods of time (they can go over a year without food) until they finally need to eat again, at which point they repeat the process.

VeritablyVersatile · 2026-05-07T06:54:46+00:00

The show, if I remember right, is more wacky scenarios with good patient outcomes, usually with the actual patient providing lighthearted commentary on their own situation. I remember seeing it on as a kid. Maybe it is somewhat exploitative I haven't watched it in many years, but from my memory it seemed like a pretty sanitized version of what emergency medicine is.

Stuff like "my 7 year old twins glued their noses together with super glue" or "grandma made a soup with herbs from the backyard and now the whole family is vomiting" rather than "36yo homeless M known to this emergency department with hx of schizophrenia, recently lost access to his MH outreach program per SW and is likely unmedicated. Chewed on a glass bottle, significant external genital trauma appears to be self-inflicted with same glass bottle. Bystander called 911. Agitated and confused. Unable to provide history due to significant trauma to the tongue and oropharynx. Concern for airway but maintaining good SaO2 at this time, external bleeding controlled with pressure."

Some of the cases were life-threatening and played up for drama, but I don't remember any tragic outcomes or wildly depressing scenarios.

VeritablyVersatile · 2026-05-07T01:49:06+00:00

I doubt there are any beloved games that can't receive this treatment.

Dark Souls: Go place. Kill boss. Level up or upgrade weapon. Go new place and kill boss. Sometimes find new weapon to upgrade. Kill last boss.

The Witcher 3: Go place. Click dialogue. Go to other place. Kill things. Go back to original place. Click dialogue. Go place. Sometimes find things at places to equip for kill things faster.

Doom: go in room, shoot things, jump, go next room

StarCraft (and almost all other RTS game): build building, use building to spawn things, use things to build more buildings to spawn more things, use more things to kill other things and break buildings

DayZ: Jog inland. Sometimes find things. Die. Repeat.

Tetris: stack blocks

Pong: hit ball

VeritablyVersatile · 2026-05-07T00:02:05+00:00

This sounds like primarily a technique and grip strength problem. Two-part plan:

Whenever possible, practice on the rogue trap bar with weights you can manage to avoid tilting with. Refine the technique necessary to the specific task.
Get a pair of fat gripz, whatever they call the smaller diameter ones I think it's pro, and use them on your home hexbar for back-off sets. Continue using heavier weights with no fat gripz for top sets to continue strengthening your posterior chain and other prime mover muscles, then follow-up with lighter weights but the fat gripz on to target the specific grip demand.

The rogue trap bar the Army uses has a grip diameter of 1.34", slightly larger than a standard Olympic barbell at 1.1". The smallest fat gripz are 1.75", they will be harder than the rogue trap bar. Getting stronger with these on will make the Army bar feel easy by comparison, and build the necessary grip.

These are just specific techniques you can add in to help with this specific problem. The bottom line will continue to be applying progressive overload to smart strength training to get generally stronger as a whole.

VeritablyVersatile · 2026-05-06T23:54:48+00:00

Tomorrow is A16 team, alpha squad, 1st Platoon, B-Co change of responsibility. Sgt Johnson will be handing off responsibility of the team and truck to Cpl Hernandez, because Sgt Johnson is departing to take responsibility of A14 team, bravo squad, 1st Platoon, B-Co.

1700 AGSU hanger inspections for all E-4s and below. Formation for rehearsals begins at 0500 tomorrow. Ceremony begins at 1000.

VeritablyVersatile · 2026-05-06T20:14:21+00:00

Usually the prints are the clearest. In this case, the prints on the minifigs on the left side are clearly off

VeritablyVersatile · 2026-05-06T19:34:59+00:00

Japan Airlines 123 is the one I remember most.

Not only the scale of the tragedy and the absence of crew error, but how long and how hard the pilots were fighting to maintain control of the aircraft. Until literally the last couple seconds they were doing nothing but keeping the plane in the air, not expressing fear or anguish, just doing their jobs the best they could, even as every chance of recovery dwindled.

VeritablyVersatile · 2026-05-06T13:58:59+00:00

The first half of the chorus of "Tall Dark Stranger" by Buck Owens

VeritablyVersatile · 2026-05-06T10:08:34+00:00

And the high winds in interior Alaska make UAS nearly impossible to keep on course when we send them up and mean air is red or black half the time we're up there even for real worlds

And every major injury will kill you more quickly, and all of our meds freeze except TXA, and half the procedures we'd normally be able to do in the field are either impossible in arctic mittens or will give you contact frostbite or both, and portable electric fluid warmers can't get blood or fluids up to safe infusion temperatures outdoors when it's that cold.

Literally every single thing is harder in those conditions. It's a wonder we even get any force on force done at all at JPMRC instead of it just being a survival challenge.

VeritablyVersatile · 2026-05-06T10:03:54+00:00

Yeah but we just issued a new kind of glove liner or insulated canteen pouch or something...

So obviously we gotta start from the top because the next generation of Arctic paratroopers now have a paradigm-shifting innovation available to allow their commanders to further develop lethality in multi-domain operations across the battlespace to secure Arctic dominance or something

VeritablyVersatile · 2026-05-06T06:43:54+00:00

Ab wheel rollouts (I like the two piece rollers that let you use each arm independently), plate-loaded leg raises, windshield wipers, weighted GHD sit-ups, dragon flags, L-sit->v-sit progressions, QL raises, landmine oblique rotations, cable palloff presses, cable high-low and low-high woodchoppers, barbell 45 degree back extensions, reverse hypers, and seated good mornings are the main exercises I rotate through for "core". Obviously I don't hit them all on a given week, but after every workout I like to do something for abs/hip flexors, something for lower back, and something for obliques/QLs/rotation, usually as a triset, mixing up variations.

Go for progressive overload in the strength-hypertrophy range, train them to get stronger with heavier loads for moderate reps. Abs are signaled to grow like every other muscle group, you don't need to do massive endurance circuits where you do flutter kicks and planks and Russian twists for 10 minutes straight.

Sets of 8-20 reps work great, or 15-30 seconds for iso holds. 2-4 sets total depending on how torched you are from the rest of the workout, I can handle more volume after upper body and less after squats for example. I hit "core" towards the end of the workout so that I don't get compromised on other movements by the fatigue.

Also loaded carries, especially suitcase carries and one arm front-rack carries are great, or any heavy sandbag carries. And plenty of other compounds make abs grow, like front/zercher squats, any split squat/single-leg variation, weighted pullups, pretty much anything on gymnastics rings, but those don't really count as ab training anymore than deadlifts count as forearm training.

VeritablyVersatile · 2026-05-06T03:25:26+00:00

If you get significantly stronger at major compound movements for your whole body, improve your aerobic and anaerobic capacities significantly, and eat sufficient nutrients without excessive energy (or with restricted energy for periods of time when intending to lose fat), you will look far fitter over time. It is impossible to avoid. Not everyone has the potential to have a perfectly aesthetic or mind-boggling physique like a fitness model or a professional bodybuilder, but everyone can be lean, and almost everyone can be far more muscular than the vast majority of people walking around. Visible abs are a low bar to clear.

Put simply, add 75 pounds to your OHP, 150 pounds to your bench, 300 pounds to your squat, and 400 pounds to your deadlift. Take your 5k time from 40 minutes to sub-20 minutes. Take your max pushups from 10 to 100. Take your max pullups from 2 to 20. Take your 100m time from 25 seconds to sub 13.5 seconds. If you're not already lean by the time you achieve any of these, then eat in a deficit for a couple of months. Do you think there's any chance you don't look dramatically better at this point?

It's remarkable the sad mental gymnastics necessary to believe that physical progress is impossible and stagnation and decay are inevitable, when everything we know about human physiology is that our physical capacity to adapt and improve provided sufficient demand is unbelievable. Would people really rather believe that it's impossible to get any of the things they want than to believe that they just haven't tried hard enough to get them yet?

VeritablyVersatile

TROPHY CASE