No, no, they have big balls. Bouncing to the left and to the right.

Well, the problem is that the kind of brace you’d want has to be shaped by hand right now.

3d printing will likely get there eventually, but turning out a chest/back brace that’s not only effective but wearable is as much an art as anything else.

I’m not sure where someone without training would get started. Orthotists and prosthetists are specialists; orthotics is a master’s program, and that’s the kind of endeavor your desired brace is.

It’s doable for sure; though whether it’s practical to recreate the decades of research and experimentation that led to where orthotics is today is a different issue.

Iirc, you’d start with thermoplastics, I can’t recall the ones that are used. But they’re shaped by mold, taken from the patient directly, then adjusted during fittings so that there’s no/less issues with long term use. And you can’t just skip the kind of shaping needed. Afaik, nobody is printing orthotics yet. Casts, yes, though that’s fairly new; but those are short term use, so don’t require the same kind of fitting.

I’ve seen, and been present during fittings for, braces for scoliosis, which is going to be similar to the kind of orthotic you’d need.

If you decide to go the home brew route, you’d want to start with a plaster cast of your torso. Best way to go, so you can have a solid form to shape whatever material you go with.

TPU was a common material back when I was still a caregiver, though that has been over a decade ago now, so it may have been supplanted by other thermoplastics.

Carbon fiber was starting to be used back then, but it tends to be too rigid for applications like a torso piece. Maybe with enough foam in between you and the rigid parts, but at that point, why not just go with something less expensive, and more flexible? Iirc, CF was being used for things like leg and ankle orthotics where they’d be bearing weight and need the extra rigidity.

I know that there was CAD based modelling and fast prototyping being done for orthotics, but it was mainly useful in prosthetics, where they could make reproducible units that would then be customized.

Tbh, I would try finding an orthotist irl to meet with and brainstorm. Even if they can’t/won’t help you make your own gear, they’ll likely still warn you off of really bad ideas.

That’s at least in part because you say you have little interest in medical or anatomical study, and that’s what you need if you want your end device to do the job you want. You just can’t fine tune a torso brace without understanding the musculoskeletal system in that area, and what you’ll need to avoid doing.

Like, the curvature of the spine. It may seem like you could just mold your body and make the brace conform to that. But, if the goal is to give support to part of your body, the brace has to apply pressure to your body applying it at the wrong place, or in the wrong way could make things worse. So if you don’t have the time/interest/willingness to gain the level of understanding of anatomy to achieve that, you’ll be better off consulting with someone that already has that knowledge. It’s kinda like self surgery, there’s only so much you can do blind without causing problems worse than what you’re trying to fix.

Well, I had been taught about Munich and Ribbentrop in public school, both during standard history classes (though they were only mentioned in passing during US history, as part of the background of what happened before the U.S. joined in)

The famine, I didn’t hear about until maybe fifteen to twenty years ago. Can’t pin it down exactly because of shit that was going on in my life at the time, but it was something I read about in one of the books on ww2 that covered events outside of Europe and the Pacific theater.

And I’ve seen many a debate about the degree to which Great Britain was responsible for it.

But, I’d have to say that none of them are exactly high on the list of what the average person remembers about the era. Most people I’ve even mentioned Molotov-Ribbentrop to had no idea what it is. They maybe remember hearing the words in school, but didn’t pay enough attention to link them to anything. The Munich agreement is pretty much unfamiliar to anyone that didn’t have an interest in ww2 beyond high school history. And the famine is outside of what most people that do have an interest care about. The only books I have on the subject of ww2 don’t mention the famine at all.

Ww2 is far enough in the past now that most of us no longer know anyone that fought in the war. It’s passed into the kind of history that’s “dead”. Even though we all, everywhere still live with the ripples in world events that started then, it might as well be aztec history as far as the typical person here in the US is concerned. Even my generation, that had grandparents that were alive during the war, or fought in the war, the interest is largely no greater than surface level.

And I’m not sure that the details like the two pacts really do matter now. They’re not anything that affects us still, unlike a lot of of events of the war. IMO, the famine is more important since it was a much broader event. Depending on how you look at it, the famine shaped a lot of events for India as a whole in ways that neither agreement did for Europe.

My block list lags my browser

In general, it isn’t about waiting for prices to drop, though that’s definitely a part. It’s more about avoiding early adoption, imo. Waiting until there’s some degree of information about the game that isn’t marketing, then deciding.

The goal is to make sure the game is stable, that it’s something you actually want to play, and avoiding hype based playing. If the price drops, or there’s a sale, that’s icing on the cake.

In the case of visual novels, I don’t really think it applies. The only thing you’ll really avoid by waiting is any bugs that need fixing, and they aren’t prone to a lot of bugs that break the enjoyment of the story. It does happen, but it isn’t like the usual mobile game bugfest at launches.

Brobdingnagian! My favorite word!

Well, we’ve tried shifting the bulk of calories to a more even amount. The problem comes in when trying to get 4 people on the same page. It worked out this way since I’m an insomniac to begin with, and I couldn’t get everyone to have a reliable lunch schedule. After dinner, I’m not hitting bed until midnight or so, and we have dinner by 6:30. We could probably do better, but it would take the adults agreeing to eat the same thing, which is like herding drunken cats.

About the only thing I add sweetness to is my biscuits unless we’re doing something specific as a dessert. That’s one of those things where if a spoonful of something is going to throw everything off, then it does. Well, that and the occasional cup of coffee or tea, but that’s in the same category.

As far as alternate milks, I don’t dislike them. Oat is my preferred, and I’ll do that in cereal or coffee sometimes. I just have to use some dairy of some kind or my guts hate me. So I might as well just drink milk since I can get it for about half of what it costs in stores, and know exactly how the cows are treated, how the milk is processed, etc. I used to just do fruit and yogurt for breakfast, back maybe eight or nine years ago. But my cousin doesn’t make yogurt, just cheeses, so I’d be back to paying more for stuff I can’t verify the conditions of. I keep trying to talk him into yogurt, but the last time they tried, it was a loss for them; not enough local demand.

It’s one of those things where I could consume less milk as milk, but it would just shift to a different kind of dairy product to keep the lactobacilli happy and active. Since the milk is way cheaper with the family discount than any other option, I just go with it.

I’m thinking of trying to make my own jams and jellies again though. It’s a pain in the ass, but it’s cheaper, and I can use way less sugar than branded options in stores. I haven’t yet because the only reliable sources locally are usually first come first serve, and I can’t always get to the farms when things are ready and then do the picking. Only one place will pick for you and sell directly. The rest, if they’re going to have to pay pickers, they’ll just sell the crop off in bulk and get a better profit margin. Can’t say I blame them.

Hmm, it’s pretty variable.

I don’t do a breakfast at all, it’s more of a brunch. I’m nauseous when I first wake up.

First meal is usually a bowl of cereal, whole milk, whatever the single serving on the side is. Sometimes it’s a biscuit with a teaspoon of jelly/jam/honey/whatever, and a pat of butter. Less often, it’ll be something like pancakes. It’s always something carb based because that’s all my stomach can handle as the first food of the day.

Then I’ll do something simple towards early afternoon. A sandwich, rotating between various meats w/cheese, pb&j, that kind of thing. Usually something fruity along with. Depends on the season, but we keep something around all year, even if it’s just bananas and apples. Sometimes the fruit is the sandwich, sometimes it’s instead of. Now and then, I’ll do up some eggs, two or three, since our hen lays more than the rest of the household will eat before they go bad.

Dinner is usually bigger. Assuming someone is able to cook that day, it’s almost always going to be veggie heavy, we too damn poor for a lot of meat. There’s no steady menu, we buy what’s on sale, or what’s available from family that farms. But it’ll typically be something like a big spoon of legumes; a similar size spoon of whatever we have between corn, rice, maybe something like quinoa or potatoes, running towards the starchy end of things. Then will be the “yummy” veg. Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, cooked greens, okra, carrots, sweet potatoes.

Most of the yummy veg is roasted because that’s what we prefer. A little olive oil, some salt and pepper, whatever herbs or spices work well with the specific veg.

The no meat days, it’ll be multiple yummy veggies, sometimes a medley.

In any case, that’s where I really splurge. It’s going to be a heaping spoon/spatula full of those. Two if I’m really into something with a craving.

Meat days, that’s typically going to be chicken unless it’s a special occasion. We usually go with breast meat because it can store better without turning funky. Approximately a half breast per person. Now, most of the time, we get that from family. I’ve got a cousin that does chicken farming alongside his corn. They’re red rangers. Not as big as some breeds, but they grow fast and do it almost entirely free range. So the pieces we eat tend to be smaller than a thigh you might get at a store. Usually around the 6 ounce range, though that’s obviously variable. Each breast comes in a little under a pound most of the time, after trimming and such.

Red meat tends to be ground beef, maybe every other month or so. I make some wicked meatballs, sometimes we’ll do burgers or a meatloaf. I never bother to measure much. We get our meat from a different cousin (yay for country life lol) that runs a dairy and raises a few steer for the family as a whole, so it’s cheaper than buying at a store (and better tbh). Usually a pound, pound and a half at a time. Split between 4 or 6 people, two meals each, depending on what we make with it. Those meals, I couldn’t tell you any measurements at all beyond that. We plate with a generous helping, but splitting it into amounts per person rather than a specific serving size.

Snack wise, I tend to not snack. But we keep fruit around, so that’s usually what it’ll be when I feel like having one.

Now, I do have my splurge choices. Stuff that’s purely for pleasure. I keep some dark chocolate around, and I’ll allow myself 2 squares a day if I want them. It isn’t every day, but a few times a week. I love me some chocolate milk, and I’ll have a 16oz cup once or twice a week, though I’ll add a smaller cup if I’m having a pb&j. Sometimes that’s a store bought, sometimes it’s from syrup.

I have a ginger ale or ginger beer as needed when my stomach is extra grumpy. I keep a few bottles of bundaberg in the fridge and cork them after I pour a glass. I think they’re 12 oz bottles? It’s into a cocktail glass, and it usually takes about half a bottle. That might be every day, might go a few without. Rarely, it’s a couple of times a day.

Now, that’s the norm, the way it usually is day to day. Days that nobody is physically up to cooking, we end up having shitty freezer food because it’s realistic. Chicken strips, prefab lasagna or pizza or whatever. My and my wife are both disabled, and my dad is old as fuck. So on the bad days, we feed the kid the good food and eat the cheap freezer crap as fuel. Which fucks up dietary balance (and calorie count), but it’s the best we can do some days.

There really isn’t much in the way of empirical evidence regarding this. It would be difficult to set up studies and experiments to even get to get that evidence.

So, you’re stuck with anecdotal info.

On that level, absolutely. I did health care as my main job from 92 until 2008. Nurse’s assistant.

During that time, my two biggest patient bases were geriatric and hospice. People that were dying, in other words.

The patients that had no dementia lasted longer than the ones that did, in terms of time from needing an NA to keep them cared for to time of death. The ones that had a goal, a thing they wanted to see happen, or to do, absolutely did better not only in terms of time, but in how they managed their life until they died.

Something as nebulous as “will”, that we don’t even have a way to quantify at all is difficult to impossible to credit with anything at all. But we know that the mind and body influence each other. But I am convinced that we have some ability to maintain our lives to some degree in extremis. The only question is how much, and how much of that is individual.

Looking back at all of it, things blur, but there were so many patients with terminal cancer that just didn’t die while moving towards a goal, that died within days of that goal being met. And it really didn’t matter what that goal was. Could be something as minor as seeing crocuses bloom again, to something like seeing their child married or graduated. But it happened so fucking often it’s a little scary.

Ehhh, a good ways.

I left high school at 213, decently chubby, but with decent muscle from lifting, maybe 20% body fat.

Over my twenties, I started lifting hard and got up to about 275, around 15% body fat. Then I stopped doing bigger weights and shifted to more whole-body types of exercise along with general strength training instead of power lifting. Dropped to about 245 or so by the time my back gave out and I ended up disabled.

I’m sitting a little under 300 currently, after I got up to 325 after a lot of ups and downs via various causes relegating me to inactivity that made properly maintaining diet a major pain in the ass where I was always off of where I needed to be to maintain. Right now, it’s damn close to 30% body fat, though with a bit of uncertainty since I did the measurements myself, could be a little higher or lower.

I’ve been working, trying to get the fat reduced without losing muscle, and that’s been difficult what with fall risk, the nerve damage, etc. I pretty much have no choice about skipping leg day, which also makes cardio harder to get burning fat and stay at that. The physical therapist is helping build a routine that should be sustainable at home.

The struggle is fucking annoying tbh. It’s so linked to my mobility at any given point in time. It’s the thing I complain about most at support group meetings lol.

Eh, up votes are just as likely to be an “I agree/like” rather than a topicality, importance, or quality indicator. And it’s just as likely to be done without any engagement worth seeing.

This is also a way to form bubbles/echo chambers since sorting by anything but new will surface just the stuff most agreed with.

If down votes are broken, then all votes are broken. The only way for voting to be not broken is to have them not change what all users see. You’d have to use some other metric for sorting that isn’t time based, and specifically exclude any vote based sorting at all.

Which is entirely possible, and I think that’s the way it should be. Keep votes because they work to filter out useless comments to some degree, but don’t let them matter.

I can answer for my wife! She said three folded, when it’s our normal tp, Charmin. Two extra for other brands.

That’s all it takes with her configuration to be dry. I’ll vote on the comments, but since she gave more than a number, and it was variable, figured that might help too.

Fwiw, I make sure to give things an extra squeeze with a few pieces myself. Not a fan of late drips in my drawers. Pee, shake, paper & gentle squeeze. Then wash hands.

Yeah, Don comes up with some really interesting stuff. To the point that even if I can’t provide a response, I’m happy to see their name.

Ahhh, I don’t know about sea lioning, I’ve never seen you doing it.

That’s where you have someone “just asking questions”, and pretending not to know anything about the matter, while they’re pushing an agenda.

You’d have to ask a mod if that’s the part of rule 5 they’re dinging you for, but if you’ve been doing it, the comments are getting removed before I’ve seen them.

The other part of rule 5 is rage baiting, where you post something inflammatory just to get people riled up. Again, not something I’ve seen guy actually do, but I can understand how someone might read some posts that way.

We’ve interacted a decent amount over the last few months, and you do have a different way of presenting questions, and a different way of thinking, I wouldn’t interpret your posts or comments as trolling. You’re consistent, you engage in a friendly manner, and don’t go over the top when someone gives you a little grief. But, again, I may not be seeing everything.

My advice? Avoid politics entirely. Unless I miss my guess, that’s where you’re running into issues.

System on chip.

It’s basically all of the stuff needed to make a device function on a single board. Radios, processors, memory, etc.

Brobdingnagian.

It’s a very big word that means very big.

It comes from Gulliver’s travels. The Brobdingnagians are giants, 12 times the height of humans. The word isn’t limited to that scale, but it’s definitely for things that are unusually large compared to us.

It’s the literal opposite of Lilliputian, which is from the better known race from “Travels” that are 1/12 our size.

It’s my absolute favorite word. Not just because it’s a literary reference but it’s fun to say. Brob ding nag ian. It just burbles off the tongue like a drunken stream stumbling among the rocks of its bed. And, it’s a big word that means big, which is just fun wordplay. Like the phobia of big words, hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia, which was inevitable as soon as the idea of a phobia of big words was conceived.

My perversion level is 69.

I mean, if you don’t mind solar cell production also taking a hit, yeah.

It isn’t going to doom the world or anything, but if the mines aren’t recoverable in a fairly short amount of time, it will put a major crimp in solar deployment. That includes driving up the price (which, unless we’re willing to kick off a revolution, is a major factor in a capitalist system) of solar right when it’s really starting to be so much cheaper than fossil fuels that it can be a big shift for energy.

Short term, it isn’t going to do anything at all. Even a few months would be a blip. But if the mines take much longer than that, it’s a big problem for everyone.

And, as an added problem, you’ve got the people that do the work now displaced. They’ll only be able to just sit idle for so long before they have to move on to other jobs, likely well away from the area. So you have a talent drain involved that can ripple out just as badly as the production drop for solar.

I don’t think anyone legitimately gives a fuck about the semiconductor makers taking a hit financially (well, assuming it doesn’t fuck the rest of us down the road too), but the “tech” industry isn’t just companies churning out the next GPU model or AI scam.

That is the name of a baby hippopotamus.

It got into the news because cute babies.

But it’s stayed in the news mainly because people are assholes.

See, babies sleep a lot. Sleeping is not something zoo goers are excited about on average (me, I would just melt and think it was extra cute).

So, you get assholes going to that zoo and trying to make the baby hippo be entertaining.

Which is, imo, peak asshole. Intentionally waking a baby anything should be punished by being tied to a chair and forced to hear Yoko Ono sing for a week straight. In person would be best, but recorded is acceptable.

That’s it. Cute baby animal + asshole humans = news.

For your entertainment, The baby hippo made an appearance on SNL

Yup, mine are drm free.