#tactical medical solutions

[rileyslibrary]

No fun allowed.

Based on this idea from anon: Can you feel that? A heat wave is washing over the 141 base. Who wants to do training at 35 degrees and counting? No one but Ghost of course... Maybe it's time for some fun summer activities instead? How about some beach volleyball in the sandpit where they blow up explosives? Fruit salad from a helmet anyone? Can our stoic lieutenant be convinced to enjoy this sunny day with the team?

———————————————————————

You were all melting in the heat today, but the lieutenant insisted on continuing the training.

Even the medics stepped in. They tried to emphasise the dangers of heat stroke, but Ghost dismissed their credibility and accused them of slacking off, claiming that he’s been through worse.

That’s right—he has been through worse. So why should you have to go through the same?

Without anyone else to turn to, you collectively decided to snitch on him and inform Price, hoping he’d be the most sensible of the two.

Being the man he is, the captain came up with a solution to please both parties—Yes, you would continue your training, but with water guns instead. This way, you could cool off from the heat while following Ghost’s training routine.

And so it happened—water guns, balloons, sprinklers, and inflatable pools were brought to the base and set up around the training grounds to simulate a field exercise.

The lieutenant wasn’t happy, but then again, when was he ever?

“This is bloody orange, and these look like fucking Skittles,” he moaned, looking at the water blasters and pointing at the balloons, “how are we going to blend in with these?”

You tried to reason with him, explaining that the bright colours would add to the difficulty since you would all have to work harder to camouflage yourselves. And, although he didn’t accept the idea in the way most people tend to change their minds, he stopped complaining.

Everyone changed in their summer attire except for the lieutenant, of course, who didn’t remove anything from his body. Not even his gloves. You asked him why he was still clinging to all that gear and pointed at a flare in his tactical vest, claiming it was unnecessary. He clarified that it wasn’t a flare but an Evian water facial spray. His response made you laugh, and in return, he made you drop and give him fifty push-ups.

And so the “training” began, and it was nothing like your lieutenant had hoped for. You were all deliberately blasting water guns at each other while staying within the sprinkler’s range to keep cool. Ghost soon lost his patience—if he had any—and chased around whoever dared to laugh or show any hint of joy, yelling things like, “Stop laughing, ya focken muppets,” and “This is serious; why can’t you take it the way is intended to be?”

And this went on and on until the water fight turned into a game of cops and robbers. Or, more like, one cop and many robbers, with Ghost chasing soldiers around and you treating him as the enemy.

And he loved it. Finally, he did.

Look at him now; so happy and running around, trying to catch you. He corners you inside a mock house, and you can see traces of his smile through the damp cloth covering his face. You desperately try to escape his grasp, but you’re too slippery. He lifts you up and tosses you over his shoulder. You scream and laugh simultaneously, and he responds with a menacing chuckle. He carries you to the centre of the training grounds and throws you in one of the inflatable pools—his “prison cells,” as he now calls them.

———————————————————————

#simon ghost riley x gn!reader #simon ghost riley x reader #simon ghost riley x you #simon ghost riley x y/n #simon ghost riley #simon riley x you #simon riley x y/n #simon riley x reader #simon riley #call of duty #modern warfare 2 #cod mwii #cod ghost #ghost call of duty #ghost mw2 #ghost mwii

[cinnamonest]

Thank youuu for sadistic Albedo headcanons. Anything druggy, medical-related usually goes hand-in-hand with sadism. Albedo (and potentially Tighnari, very much with Dottore and Baizhu I imagine) gets off on having power over you with a single drop of alchemical mixtures - plant powders for Tighnari and... whatever the hell Dottore uses. Amazing that one flask of whatever they concoct has so much power over the human body - aphrodisiacs, sleep, hypno shit etc.

Since Baizhu is coming I have been thinking so much about this concept with him... one thing that works to his advantage is that he has a certain charisma and charm about him, so he can be perfectly persuasive when he needs to be, when he wants to push your boundaries, force things onto you, get you to comply. It is, however, sort of a clash with his eccentricity -- he's genial and friendly enough that you want to comply and would feel bad for being inconvenient or oppositional, but just a little "off" enough that you are much more likely to suspect something from the get-go compared to a more plain person.

But perhaps surprisingly, he's not the covert type. He's not going to hide it, try and get you to have a drink or consume something laced or spiked, no... but this is also a tactic in and of itself. Because if he did use something covert, and you were to insist on not consuming it and he kept pushing it, your suspicion would only grow.

By presenting it as an obvious pharmaceutical substance up front, if anything, actually lowers any chance of distrust. Because after all, in your mind, if he was planning to drug you, he would do it covertly and not be so blatant, right...? At least, that's what he knows the average person's thought process would be, and by knowing this thus takes advantage of it by doing the opposite.

Besides, you'll most likely reason with yourself in your head that he would never have any ill intent, and he knows that. He can add a bit of extra guilt-tripping, too, by telling you it's a test he needs to perform and needs your help, so you'll help, right? This and the blatant presentation can also offset any negative reaction from you during the time that you may still have enough control of yourself to react. Oh, you're dizzy, lightheaded, feel like your muscles are going lax? That's entirely normal, it should go away momentarily... and thus, you won't panic the way you might if you had been presented with something you believed to be tea or food or the like, nor try and fight. This is also advantageous, seeing as on his more sickly days, he may be in a more weakened state, and would have more difficulty restraining you physically if you were to struggle.

Which is something he worries about... and won't end well for you. He's quite paranoid of the possibility of being caught in a weaker state and being overpowered, which would allow you to get away. Can't have that. The only solution, then, is to ensure you're incapable. A variety of measures are taken to ensure this. Initially, physical restraints... but don't worry, you won't need them for very long.

He assures you of that as soon as you wake, knowing you're probably uncomfortable with them, and he wouldn't want you to worry that that discomfort will be permanent, so he explains it in full. After a very short while, the medication will set in, leaving you fully paralyzed, and another to put you in a half-conscious, stupefied state. That will need to be re-administered at set intervals, once every few hours. The restraints are there for now while your body gets into the cycle of metabolizing it is all.

And, of course, because he's predicted that there is a very good chance you're going to be... noncompliant. That's a frustrating ordeal in and of itself. Come on, make this easier on you both, alright? Fighting is so pointless, you're just making things harder on yourself. You know the outcome will be the same, he'll just have to force it into your mouth, and he knows that isn't pleasant, so why struggle so much? Maybe it's a matter of pride for you or something like that, you don't want to give in so easily. That's endearing, at least, albeit problematic.

Eventually, though, you won't even need those. Atrophy sets in a lot faster than most people realize. But you don't need to worry about the inconveniences that normally come with that, nor being neglected. Even if he's tired and weary, he's very insistent to keep you perfectly cared for, will bathe you, feed you, take care of your hair if needed, change the sheets more often since you'll be laying on them most of the time. All with consistent timing, never slacking or forgetting anything. It's only right to take the best possible care of something dear to you.

#.bz

[14dyh]

Re-Animator | H.Z.

Pairing: Hange Zoë x female reader Summary: Y/N fell in love with a mad scientist who aims to reanimate the dead and repurpose their bodies. Word count: 2.1k Content warning: Potentially insane behavior. A/N: Still not over Re-Animator and Hange obviously so I tried writing this in a slightly Lovecraftian style

Of Hange Zoë, who was my lover and whose unsurpassed curiosity brought our lives together in both fascination and ruin. Their recent disappearance brought about the case of sinister crimes laced with the name of Siroma University Medical School. Accusations were made, some proven under dormant pieces of evidence that only stirred at Hange's sudden disappearance. Their crimes spoke of the hideous possibilities when man is given the power of a god and as their closest companion, I became the sole testimony to the reality of the power they came to be obsessed with.

My father who owned the university hid traces of crimes to maintain the reputation of his beloved school, unknowingly covering up the involvement of his only daughter in the crimes of Hange Zoë.

It was nine years ago when I visited the university and crossed paths with Hange whose eccentricity piqued the interest of many. They were a charmer, one whose idealisms defy the traditional idea about the mechanism of life and its natural processes. One would either hold them in high regard for such unique ideas or consider their pursuits as lunacy procured by unfounded or misinterpreted data from groundless experiments. Some ridiculed Hange's views behind their back, even the professors whose underachievement despite years of research translates to petty hatred.

In Hange's experiments, they spoke of the reagent they created that would enable human flesh to extend its useful existence even after death in exchange for the creature's instinct or will. Countless animals were used for their experiments and found that after their treatment, the animals indeed regained a sign of life but no visible instinct they used to have in their earlier life. Hange aims to restore the corporeal body to its full potential without relying on instincts that it used to own. To conquer death and let the living be in full control of the deceased was Hange's idea of a world fully utilized to its capability.

Several times we talked this over as my visitations became frequent because of a family friend I visited out of obligation. Sharing the same fascination with such an extreme idea that defied natural law, I was captivated by Hange's ideals and eventually became a close companion who helped them to continue their research despite the questionable ethical practices the experiments had to go through. Eventually, Hange needed fresh deceased specimens to test the reagent in humans. It started with a few body parts gaining a sign of life within a minute or two. Hange's frustration from the frequent failed attempts was never shown, the strength of their ambition and insanity was far greater than their fear to see their work fail as a reasonable possibility. In the time we spent in such a curious nature, we eventually became lovers behind my father's back, knowing that he would disagree with Hange's unethical experimentations and my own desire to see such a fascinating thing come true.

There was a time when the reagent failed to work entirely. I could see that the desperateness to perfect the solution was affecting my lover in such ways that it became very difficult for them to hide their desire to obtain body parts from the morgue. Occasionally, a bloodstain would be on their collar or the hem of their sleeves, one time I wiped drying blood off their cheek. My disapproving remarks of their cursory behavior will only be met by a chuckle, and Hange attributing my observations to the keenness of my eye. Seeing their desperation to quickly resolve their shortcomings, I frequented the hospital and used both my privilege and sly tactics to help Hange sneak bodies from the morgue. No one doubted my intentions since I have built a respectable reputation over time. Hange came to know my efforts and promised to yield better results.

In late midnights, I often visited the underground makeshift lab Hange and I shared. A curious incident began to happen with the specimens injected with the reagent Hange altered to fit the specimen at hand. Humans and animals have varying chemical processes within their bodies as Hange explained. One night at the lab, we began to prepare a specimen we obtained with utmost freshness, a severed hand from a machinery accident. The thing regained signs of life; it began with a minor twitch and began to convulse. Hange and I observed the specimen within several intervals of time and noted the changes or movements it executed. However, the thing began to steam off and enlarge several minutes later so we had to move it to a bigger metal slab. The thing shuddered violently before erupting as a huge cloud of hot steam, leaving traces of several fractured bones. Hange did not know what to make of the behavior the specimen showed. They theorized it to be the tissues' initial reaction to the new reagent.

This cycle of reanimation and obtaining organic specimens went undiscovered. I was enthusiastic to be Hange's partner in this work that might have been considered loathsome. They entrusted me with managing operations and trusted my medical knowledge when forming decisions.

A ghastly opportunity presented itself to Hange when one night, Hange came carrying the deceased body of a man. Hange hauled the thing inside the lab, I could tell that the man had not been dead for more than half an hour as the early attributes of death had not set in.

I questioned where they obtained such a specimen but Hange only shrugged it off as an unimportant matter and diverted the conversation by asking me for help to quickly strap the thing on the metal slab. That night, despite the dark dingy nature of our makeshift laboratory, I could see the fiery intent of Hange's eyes, with the desperateness and passion of a madman or a lover. We took precautions in injecting the reagent, not risking premature animation in such a perfect specimen. The thing spasmed and struggled against its straps. The creature became so violent that it managed to break through, thrashing and writhing in misery. When the thing managed to free its hand, it began to claw on its eyes and throat. Amidst my panic and fear of what the creature was capable of, Hange only stared in profound fascination. Among the broken flasks, upturned furniture, and scattered papers, Hange stared at their prized creation with the same intensity as Pygmalion's first glimpse at Galatea. I was tempted to be caught in the same trance out of fascination but I knew Hange would ignore the danger the situation poses, too absorbed by their malevolent interest.

The thing burst out of the door, making poor use of its limbs to escape. I quickly followed it and brought out my revolver to finish off the second life it was given. The night seemed very silent after the gunshot was fired.

Hange helped me to bury the body in the secluded, shabby forest not far from the lab. That night, despite the traces of evidence left in our bodies, Hange came to hug me and told me that our cause was near to its potentiality all for the world to see.

Their voice was laced with manic intent, and their reaction that night only suggested that their unbridled desire would begin to get worse.

Hange became quite distant for a while. There are weeks when we only see each other in the university and talk very little about reanimation. Hange reasoned that they wanted their next experiment to be a surprise to me. A gift of some sort for being my partner in crime. I doubted their intentions behind this, I sensed that they were delving into more dangerous experiments and refused to involve me. Whenever I try to insist on helping them out in the lab, they only smile at me and insist that they want to show me a good result and not a faulty experiment. Thinking back on what we shared, I regretted not insisting harder, and became more difficult.

It was the first day of spring when Hange did not appear in the university. I could not hold back my worry and went immediately to the boarding house where Hange lives. They held back at first, refusing to let me in but was eventually persuaded to do so. They opened the door slightly, and showed their face to me, revealing several bandaged wounds and a bandaged left eye still seeping with blood. I tended to them as much as I could but Hange refused to speak the entire time. Their place was more of a mess than usual, with papers scattered everywhere and discarded laundry. It pains me to see as though they never took care of themself since the incident. I insisted for them to tell me the truth but it ended up with Hange being more persistent for me to stay out of the recent reanimation experiments.

All I had dreaded became reality as news about a mysterious creature who slaughtered seven people in cold blood spread upon the university. I heard among quiet conversations about the statement of the witness: the creature that attacked a quiet neighborhood was a large human-like creature that screeched and howled miserably before disappearing in a cloud of steam, leaving few fragments of bones behind.

Seeing Hange's troubled state earlier before knowing about the incident only strengthened my suspicion that they are involved with something more sinister.

Hange never attended the university again and was not found even by their friends or acquaintances. It was rumored that they moved to a different town after being seen several times outside the town.

A mysterious letter later appeared in my mail but I could not mistake Hange's messy penmanship. The letter was rather hopeful as they promised to return once our dream of defying death was brought to perfection. My devastation after they left showed in my poor health and restless behavior.

My lover has brought a monster into this world and ultimately destroyed themself to reach their true potential of having the power of a god.

I loved Hange the way a faithful follower remained devoted to their fallen god. I watched Hange's passionate, loving eyes full of curiosity and wonder shatter under the weight of the power they wielded for themself. A fallen god who went too close to the sun, one whose burning desire cannot be satiated with simple earthly pleasures.

In the several months when they seemed to have disappeared, I never failed to notice a constant presence from afar or outside my window as though in partial visits. I could never mistake Hange's presence, a watchful gaze that seemed to bore through my core every night as though patiently watching a creature in silence so it would not stir. For months, our relationship went on in this strange way. No matter how much I showed my loneliness with their choice to remain distant, I knew that Hange was resolute about their mission. I waited patiently, leaving my heart bare to no one else but my beloved.

Their sudden disappearance was reported after another curious incident in the new place they moved in. Hange's room was reported to be in shambles, their belongings ruined as though a huge creature clawed and thrashed around the room. Their laboratory swarmed with human body parts was discovered in the basement but no traces of the reagent or their research were left. My sorrow and desperation overpowered my fear and I went to the abandoned apartment late that night. I knew Hange better than the police who tried to rationalize the scene and only managed to come up with superficial theories despite Hange's records of suspicious activities years ago. I rummaged through the things Hange and I once shared in the laboratory we had together, finding the documents they must have hidden. That much was a success when I found a secret compartment Hange carefully crafted under the floorboards. It contained all their findings, the solution--all the information Hange entrusted to me. However, a notebook was left along with their things, a journal containing all that happened since the day they left. The edge of each paper was marked with a cryptic symbol only Hange and I knew. I know as much that the journal was dedicated to me.

I went home carrying all their things, scrutinizing each page with the hope that it would tell me their current whereabouts. Wherever Hange is, I know that immense danger was upon them, maybe not from the authorities but from the creatures they reanimated.

I spent the rest of my waking days in search of my beloved. It crossed my mind at the dead hours of the night that Hange may have died the night of their disappearance. However, my intuition further tells me that Hange was somewhere waiting for us to be reunited, to lead an insane life only them and I could live.

#hange zoë #hange zoe #hange zoe x reader #hange zoe x you #hange zoe x y/n #hanji zoë #hanji zoe x reader #aot x reader #aot x you #aot x y/n #aot #aot fanfiction #snk #snk fanfiction #attack on titan #shingeki no kyojin #hange aot #hange snk #14dyh-writes

[lexical-lushes]

[Shivers] so, o-one of my facet-stories is about horny mech pilots.

a world where, generations ago, leading world governments decided to "fix" population growth and overpopulation by releasing a retrovirus agent that rewired humans to have a heat cycle. by the time anyone not in on the plan realized what was being done, it was too late.

sexual interest is dampened for most of the year - every three months, girls go into heat for a week or two and release pheromones that, a-ah, stimulate people around them.

(there are, of course, medications that can be taken to suppress heat cycles. or trigger them early, although those are something really only the upper class has regular access to.)

of course, the whole "solution" was just a self-serving bid to hold onto power in a world of ecological collapse and ongoing destructive climate change. states and major corporations colluded and consolidated their power as vast portions of the world suffered desertification and equatorial "dead zones" spread. populations were relocated into increasingly centralized and strictly controlled urban zones, which grew into vast arkocities supported by sprawling hydroponics facilities.

resource wars broke out, as well as increasingly hostile corporate takeovers. the arkocities built fortifications, expanding their existing lockdown procedures for civil unrest and extreme weather events.

the weapon of choice in the growing conflicts became mechanized walkers and automated vehicles. furthermore, the arms race to improve upon these technologies eventually led to a cutting-edge advancement in mech warfare: direct neural interlocks.

instead of a pilot relying on manual controls and the machine's automatic reflex systems, select candidates were screened for appropriate neurological and psychological profiles before being implanted with a cybernetic interface allowing them to "plug in" to a mech's combat computer. the "pilot", really more of a neural processor or "bioCPU", then synchronizes with the mech's own systems and acts as a rapid processing system capable of intuitively analyzing combat situations and "steering" the mech.

a good neural processor needs to be highly aggressive while also capable of surrendering enough control to the mech's systems that synchronization can be achieved.

s-so...

it turns out that an orphan girl named Amelia gets high marks during a round of corporate-sponsored health checkups and psychological screening.

she's shy, with little self-confidence. extremely vulnerable to peer pressure. deathly afraid of being unlikable or abandoned.

but she's driven, too, fueled by all that fear and bottled-up resentment.

she gets selected as a candidate. she scores well. she survives the cybernetic augmentation process. when they finally plug her into a mech, she gets the highest score of anyone in the program - she gives herself over completely to the machine, straining to do exactly what it wants. KILL. KILL. KILL. ELIMINATE THE TARGET.

the more she gives herself over and unbottles that deep well of pain inside her, the more she's free, the more the reward hooks work their way into her until she's a frothing, snarling, pent-up mess of a girl by the time they pull her out of the cockpit.

(and oh, how she's embarrassed by that.)

...luckily, she has someone to help her work out all that stress, someone that understands and adores her for the monstrous, violent thing she becomes in a combat situation.

after all, neural processors often can't be trusted to interpret orders during the heat of combat. you need someone a little more detached from the situation for that. so... you pair the "pilot" up with a navigator and comms operator. they feed select tactical data to the pilot, point them in the right direction, and keep one hand hovering over the emergency override and disengage switch if the pilot ever gets out of hand and needs a yank on their leash.

so it's j-just me and my RIO, strapped into a heavily armed missile with an instinct to kill called Sierra One, tearing apart less agile and responsive mechs at command's behest~

#lushposting #empty spaces #mechs

[goodmorningnona]

alright, ive had bipolar disorder for like six years already and though medication helps prevent manic behaviors, the mania doesn't actually go away, so here are some of the ways ive hacked my mania so i dont just snort a bunch of coke at a dive bar:

1. feeling spendy? take yourself to the dollar store, thrifting, or buy off of a list of "nice to haves"! set aside physical cash in the amount you can spend so you dont overspend (or at least prevent yourself from overspending as much as possible), or try only bringing a certain amount of bags to carry the goods and limit yourself to that amount of bags.

2. have too much energy and/or feel really frustrated or irritable? GYM. GYM GYM GYM. i dont care if youre not normally a gym person, go to the gym. if you dont have access to a gym, go for a run. if you cant run or go to the gym, shadow box in your house/backyard. throw pillows around your bed, jump on it, kick your legs like youre having a tantrum. let yourself slam doors. if you have access to some under-used concrete like a shitty parking lot or a driveway, break those dishes you dont even like (just clean up the glass after).

3. feeling creative? dont go buy another new hobby, pick up one of the ones youve tabled for so long! keep a list to remind yourself of your hobbies for when youre manic- looking at it may get you excited!

4. want to completely change your life, quit your job and move to a different country? move some furniture, do some reorganizing, clean the house, or throw out some stuff you dont need anymore. for this i like to put on those cleaning/reorganization shows or organizing video compilations on in the background to get me pumped up.

5. feeling restless? go to a new place. for this i say it depends on the level of restlessness what the solution is. mild restlessness (aka "urghhh im bored") calls for a walk/drive in a new direction/one you usually dont go in (NOT A ROAD TRIP, you manic motherfucker). moderate to severe restlessness (aka "there's nothing to DO IM GONNA BITE SOMETHING") calls for going to a new place, like a museum, library, even a waterfront you haven't been to before.

6. wanna do a bunch of drugs and/or party? hang out with some friends instead. if you normally do some drugs (cigarettes weed alcohol), do them around friends who know your situation so you dont overdo it. and i say only those three drugs because dear god, everything else will just make you more manic. note: be careful with some strains of weed while manic, particularly sativa-dominant- they can cause more mania and hallucinations.

7. racing thoughts? DRAW. even if youre not an artist or cant draw worth a shit, DRAW. manic drawings are actually a whole thing in psychology and are SO COOL TO LOOK AT. I even have a tattoo of a drawing i did while manic! just let your hands move freely on the page with whatever tools you feel like using.

a lot of these tactics can be swapped out with each other depending on what helps your moods. if reorganizing when youre restless helps, then great! if when you wanna change your life you go to a new place, awesome. whatever works for you! these are just some ideas. i keep this list pinned on my phone so that when im manic i remember.

if you have any suggestions, please add them!

#bipolar disorder #mania #bipolar #lessons of the hand and the mouth #harm reduction

[ranahan]

Free tactical medicine learning resources

If you want to learn first aid, emergency care or tactical medical care for real, you will need to practice these skills. A lot. Regularly. There’s no way to learn them just from books. But if you’re looking to supplement your training, can’t access hands on training, are a layperson doing research for your writing or otherwise just curious, here are some free resources (some may need a free account to access them).

TCCC

The current gold standard in the field is Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC), developed by the US army but used by militaries around the world. There is also a civilian version of the system called Tactical Emergency Casualty Care (TECC). Training materials, Standards of Care, instructional videos, etc. can be accessed at deployedmedicine.com. You’ll need a free account. This should be your first and possibly only stop.

There’s also an app and a podcast if those are more your thing, although I haven’t personally tried them.

More TCCC (video) resources

STOP THE BLEED® Interactive Course

TCCC-MP Guidelines and Curriculum presentations and training videos

EURMED’s Medical Beginner's Resource List has suggested list of video materials (disclaimer: I haven’t watched the playlists, but I have been trained by nearly all of the linked systems/organisations and can vouch for them)

Tactical Medical Solutions training resource page (requires registration; some of the courses are free)

North American Rescue video downloads

Emergency medicine

WHO-ICRC Basic Emergency Care: approach to the acutely ill and injured — an open-access course workbook for basic emergency care with limited resources

Global Health Emergency Medicine — open-access, evidence-based, peer-reviewed emergency medicine modules designed for teachers and learners in low-resource health setting

AFEM Resources — curricula, lecture bank, reviews, etc.

Global Emergency Medicine Academy Resources (links to more resources)

OpenStax Anatomy and Physiology textbook

Open-access anatomy and physiology learning resources

Principles of Pharmacology – Study Guide

Multiple Casualty Incidents

Management of Multiple Casualty Incidents lecture

Bombings: Injury Patterns and Care blast injuries course (scroll down on the page)

Borden Institute has medical textbooks about biological, chemical and nuclear threats

Psychological first aid: Guide for field workers

Prolonged field care

When the evac isn’t coming anytime soon.

Prolonged Field Care Basics lecture (requires registration)

Aerie 14th Edition Wilderness Medicine Manual (textbook)

Austere Emergency Medical Support (AEMS) Field Guide (textbook)

Prolonged Casualty Care (PCC) Guidelines

Wilderness Medical Society Clinical Practice Guidelines

Austere Medicine Resources: Practice Guidelines — a great resource of WMS, PFC, TCCC, etc. clinical practice guidelines in one place

The Wilderness and Environmental Medicine Journal (you can read past issues without a membership)

Prolonged Field Care Collective: Resources

National Park Services Emergency Medical Services Resources

Guerilla Medicine: An Introduction to the Concepts of Austere Medicine in Asymmetric Conflicts (article)

Mental health & PTSD

National Center for PTSD

Psychological first aid: Guide for field workers

Combat and Operational Behavioral Health (medical textbook)

Resources for doctors and medical students

Or you know, other curious people who aren’t afraid of medical jargon.

Borden Institute Military Medical Textbooks and Resources — suggestions: start with Fundamentals of Military Medicine; mechanism of injury of conventional weapons; these two volumes on medical aspects of operating in extreme environments; psychosocial aspects of military medicine; or Combat Anesthesia

Emergency War Surgery textbook and lectures

Disaster Health Core Curriculum — online course for health professionals

Médecins Sans Frontières Clinical guidelines

Pocket book of hospital care for children: Second edition — guidelines for the management of common childhood illnesses in low resource settings

Grey’s Quick Reference: Basic Protocols in Paediatrics and Internal Medicine For Resource Limited Settings

The Department of Defense Center of Excellence for Trauma: Trauma Care Resources (links to more resources)

#feel free to share and add more #tactical medicine #tactical combat casualty care #prolonged field care #austere medicine #military medicine #tccc #tecc #disaster medicine #wilderness medicine #emergency medicine #emergency medical services #learning resources #writing resources #mandalorian medics

[republicsecurity]

Chastity

The chastity cage, a standard issue for recruits, boasted a design that seamlessly integrated with the advanced technology of the Armour Suits.

Material: Nano Plastics and Ceramics Dual-Chamber Design: Separation for Testicles and Penis Locking Mechanism: Secure yet easily accessible for hygiene and maintenance Anti-Tamper Sensors: Alerts the AI in case of unauthorized attempts to manipulate the device Temperature Control: Maintains a comfortable temperature within the chambers Aeration System: Allows for ventilation to prevent moisture and ensure skin health Customizable Restraint Levels: Adjustable settings for varying degrees of security Medical-Grade Monitoring: Monitors physiological health and provides feedback to the wearer Compatibility: Integrates seamlessly with Armour Suit technology and HUD interfaces Hygienic Seals: Ensures cleanliness and reduces the risk of infection Comfort Padding: Medical-grade silicone for extended wear Adjustable Fit: Customizable sizing to accommodate individual anatomical variations Durability: Resistant to corrosion, impact, and extreme environmental conditions Charging: Wireless induction charging for convenience Compliance: Meets Tactical Paramedic Corps regulations for personal equipment

This state-of-the-art chastity cage goes beyond mere physical restraint, incorporating advanced technologies to ensure both security and the well-being of the wearer. Its dual-chamber design, combined with biometric authentication and anti-tamper features, establishes a new standard for personal discipline within the Tactical Paramedic Corps.

Shielded from external access, both the penis and testicles find residence in specially designed chambers crafted from premium silicone rubber. The surface texture mimics natural skin, ensuring a comfortable fit without leaving any discernible pressure marks. Within this chamber, a clear division accommodates the separate housing of the penis and testicles. The penis tube takes on a downward-bent configuration for optimal comfort.

Dedicated protection is afforded to the testicles through an independent chamber, shielding against pinching and providing a cooling effect. The larger size, complemented by a more spacious tube, enhances overall comfort. Additionally, ample room for expansion is available to prevent any sense of constraint in case of enlargement.

When nature calls, there's no requirement to unlock the belt. The penis tube seamlessly connects to an opening at the bottom of the belt. To prevent any potential blockage caused by an erect penis, a reservoir ensures the discharge point remains unobstructed.

The chastity belt integrates seamlessly with the armor suit's docking system through a specialized interface mechanism. The belt is equipped with a proprietary docking port that aligns precisely with the corresponding receptacle on the armor suit. This connection is established using a secure locking mechanism that ensures a robust and tamper-proof link.

This connection not only facilitates power transfer and data exchange but also ensures the proper functioning of integrated systems.

Upon docking, a series of verification protocols are initiated, confirming the integrity of the connection and the operational status of both the chastity belt and the armor suit.

Upon initiating the waste evacuation procedure, the integrated systems work in tandem to ensure a seamless and controlled process. The docking mechanism guarantees a reliable connection, allowing for the unhindered flow of waste from the chastity belt to the designated disposal system within the armor suit.

This comprehensive solution contributes to the overall functionality of the armor suit, addressing the physiological needs of the wearer while maintaining the discretion and efficiency required in operational environments.

The chastity cage is designed with versatility in mind, allowing it to be worn independently of the armor suit. Its standalone functionality ensures that the wearer can maintain the constraints and security provided by the chastity cage even when not in the complete armor suit ensemble.

Constructed from durable nano plastics and ceramics, the chastity cage provides a discreet and comfortable fit. The dual-chamber design, featuring separate compartments for the penis and testicles, ensures security and protection while offering a natural feel against the skin.

Whether worn as part of the complete armor suit or independently, the chastity cage remains an integral component, aligning with the established protocols and regulations governing the paramedics' conduct and attire

The uniformity enforced by the chastity cage contributes to the overall professionalism of the paramedics. It aligns with the standards set by the Corps, fostering a sense of discipline and uniformity among the tactical medical team.

The dual-chamber design ensures that the genitals are securely enclosed, reducing the risk of contamination or injury in the field.

By eliminating concerns related to personal needs, the paramedics can maintain a focused and concentrated mindset during critical situations. The chastity cage's design allows for seamless waste evacuation without compromising operational efficiency.

[hypaalicious]

Black Hair Care myths BUSTED!

Since I’m fighting off the plague and have nothing else better to do but lay here pitifully, I’ve decided to talk about hair again after my last two posts on shampoo types and curly hair care , only this time focusing on Black folks’ hair and the misinformation lots of us grew up on.

Now, because I know the gowrls like to tussle (and Mercury in Microbraids along with an eclipse is upon us), lemme just say this: if you’re absolutely happy with your hair care routine, then this post isn’t for you.

This post is only for people who are curious and want to evolve and simplify their hair care routines.

OKAY LEGGO:

The hair typing chart is garbage.

Everyone and they mama should be familiar with this chart. So many of us use it to determine what type of hair products to buy that work best for our hair type.

Unfortunately, the chart is pseudo-science.

All hair types need the same basic care (shampooing/conditioning at least every week), and products that claim to cater to a specific hair type is just a marketing tactic. This chart also promotes texturism; Oprah’s stylist literally made up the type 4 category to say that the only thing to do to tight curls is to straighten or loosen them. 🥲

Products can’t give you the kind of curls you want.

I touched on this a bit in my first hair post, but it bears repeating here: Curl “activators”, Shea butter, raw oil blends, creams, leave-in conditioners, texturizing shampoos… all of them are finessing you, beloveds. If your hair isn’t holding defined clumps of curls immediately after shampooing, then your hair is likely chronically dehydrated and needs to be detoxed.

We’re kinda raised to product chase because we’re told that the way our hair grows out of our heads is bad and needs to be fixed, and the $2.5 billion Black hair care industry is always eager to offer us placebos for our coin. We see someone with the hair texture and length we want and we immediately ask “what products do you use??” as if the answer is in a bottle when it’s really just genetics. 🤷🏽‍♀️

Greasing/oiling your scalp does not moisturize it, get rid of dandruff, or make your hair grow faster.

As a kid I remember my hairdresser using a fine toothed comb and “breaking up” the dandruff on my scalp before applying Sea Breeze to soothe it. Every single time, the dandruff came back worse. 😩 If I put oil on my scalp, it would take only a day before build up and large yellow flakes would rain out of my hair. But I thought because my scalp and my hair needed moisturizing that I couldn’t go without oils.

Well, I was right on one thing; my scalp and hair def needed moisture. But I wasn’t gonna get moisture from anything but water, and at the time I was avoiding water like the plague because I always had a fresh silk press or perm and I didn’t want my hair “reverting”.

If you have a scalp condition or chronic itchiness, you are very much making it worse by adding any of that to your head. The only solution is to wash your hair, loves. Yes, you may have to choose between looking “laid” and what’s actually good for your hair and scalp, but them’s the breaks.

The hair growth oils that line the shelves at Sally’s? Literally snake oil. Same goes for hair vitamins, biotin, MSM, rice water, JBCO, egg white/tea rinse/fruit or food products, African Black soap, rose water, etc. Nothing topical, save for specific medicated prescription drugs from a dermatologist, can make hair grow. Save ya money, hunny!

Co-washing and water-only washing doesn’t get your hair clean.

Conditioner is incapable of doing what shampoo does. You’re just gonna add layers of build up on your hair doing co-washes. Water-only cleansing is like never using soap in your laundry and expecting your clothes to be clean. 😬 Only putting shampoo on your scalp and carefully avoiding the length of your hair is the equivalent of white folks not washing their legs in the shower. Don’t do any of this.

I actually do not know where the myth started that Black folks hair is somehow too fragile to handle shampoo, a thing that is specifically formulated for hair. 😅 If shampoo is drying your hair out, you need to make sure you’re using the right kind of shampoo, not ditching shampoo altogether. If you need help, I touched on shampoo basics here!

Using a spray bottle to “refresh” your hair doesn’t do what you think it’s doing.

Tiny water droplets from a spray bottle only sit on the surface of your hair, even more so if your hair already has product in it. If your styles aren’t holding until your next wash, you may need to re-examine what you’re using, how you apply it, and how you set it. If you need to refresh a style or get moisture, nothing less than washing your hair will do.

Finger detangling or using a wide toothed comb or denman brush isn’t doing the job.

I know we’ve been raised to think that because our hair is tightly coiled, that we have to treat it with kid gloves. But we actually do more harm to our hair by not detangling correctly. Detangling is the act of getting shed hair out from your head so it doesn’t wrap up in your healthy hair and cause breakage. A wide toothed comb can’t do that, and neither can your fingers. A denman brush is ONLY supposed to be used to hold tension in the hair when blowdrying it straight. What you want is a Felicia Leatherwood brush and to use that bad boy in the shower right after putting conditioner on sopping wet hair, trust me.

Protective styles don’t exist.

Buns, braids, wigs… all of them look fantastic when done right and it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t wear them. But they are all just alternative styles; nothing is being protected. I know a lot of us love the low maintenance that having these styles provide, but I want us to examine why they are thought of as low maintenance: it’s because folks are less likely to wash their hair/detangle while having them.

Any style that discourages you from weekly hair washing cannot be protective. It instead promotes hair neglect. Yes, I know, it can cost thousands of dollars for those waist length box braids or sew in, but you paid for the labor that goes into those kinds of styles, not the ability to keep them in for as long as possible. Not touching your hair for weeks on end means you’ll have dehydrated hair with mad buildup to get rid of. And btw, that type of damage to the hair cannot be fixed in just one visit to the salon. For as many weeks as you go without washing your hair, you need that many weeks out of an alternative style with frequent washing to help it recover.

Dry hair is determined by its behavior, not how it feels.

This one has a lot of folks tripped out because logically, we should be able to just touch our strands and know that it needs moisture. Unfortunately, so many of us don’t know what our actual hair feels like without it being slathered in products, so the moment that we stop using them we think our hair is “dry” when it’s really just how our natural hair texture may feel. It’s def not easy in the beginning to let go of the familiarity a nicely oiled head of hair presents. 🥲

So, how do you know if you have dry hair? If it can’t hold a curl pattern without manipulation, is hydrophobic (if water doesn’t completely flatten hair to your scalp when you wash it, it’s not absorbing), is extremely difficult to detangle, breaks off easily, etc.

You don’t need to rinse your hair in cold water.

Only reason you should even consider it is if you have vivid color in your hair, but… lemme tell y’all sumn.

Years ago when I started dyeing my hair, it was typical for a permanent black hair dye to act like a semi-perm and wash almost completely out or turn grey in a few weeks. Now that I have a much better hair regimen that keeps my hair in the best health it can be, my semi-permanent fashion colors last for months until I decide to touch it up again. And I absolutely do not relish being cold in the shower, so I just use hot water.

The health of your hair matters more than any gimmicks or products you can use to fix a problem.

Long hair/shiny hair is not an indicator of health, it is an indicator of genetics.

I want DESPERATELY for us as a people to break the shackles of thinking that the only hair that matters is long and thick, or that someone who has long hair is an automatic authority on hair care.

If you want an idea of how long your hair can get, then look to your family. If your mom or dad don’t have hair touching their waist then it’s highly possible you were not blessed with the DNA to get your hair waist length either. And that’s okay! You aren’t any less valid. It will just save you a LOT of heartache to learn to embrace your hair the way it naturally is rather than to run around buying products and chasing haircare trends in hopes that a miracle will happen. Not to mention, I’ve seen a lot of folks with long hair but they ain’t had a trim in years and it absolutely shows. 😬

A lot of folks do not have shiny hair, that is once again due to genetics not hair health. Matte hair has a different surface texture and that’s absolutely fine! Only manufactured beauty standards glorify long and shiny hair.

Speaking of hair length…

Shrinkage is not your enemy.

A general rule is that the only hair length that matters is how you regularly wear it.

My hair stays comfortably at the nape of my neck now that I wear my curls 100% of the time. If I pull it taut, then it’ll reach mid-back. But I don’t plan on straightening my hair ever again to show that mid-back length, so… 🤷🏽‍♀️ I have short hair because that is how it lays without manipulation. And that’s fine.

Shrinkage doesn’t scare me because it’s what healthy curly hair DOES. If my hair springs like a coil and retains shape, then I’m doing something right! I have always wanted long hair, I won’t deny that. But if I have to stretch my natural hair in any way in order to GET that long hair, it’s not worth it to me. I’ll just wear a wig for a hot min if I wanna whip my hair back and forth.

Air drying your hair isn’t better than diffusing it with a hair dryer.

Another thing we’ve been told is that heat damages our hair and that air drying is best. That’s not necessarily true.

DIRECT heat can damage your hair (flat irons, blow outs, pressing combs). INDIRECT heat (hooded dryers, a diffuser attachment on a handheld dryer) does not. In fact, diffused heat sets your wash and gos/twist outs way better than air drying. It cuts down on frizz and ensures your style will last through the week.

Also, it’s better to dry your hair completely rather than wait hours for it to air dry and then maybe sleep on wet hair. Fun fact: Leaving your hair wet for too long can cause mold to grow in your hair! 😱 And if you lay a wet head on a pillow, the bacteria transfers to your pillowcase and you continue to sleep in that until you wash the pillow!

You can’t “lock moisture in” your hair.

Water evaporates. It’s what it’s gonna do. 🤷🏽‍♀️ Putting leave ins or oils on your hair in hopes that water stays in your strands longer isn’t a thing, despite what a lot of us have been told. The only thing you’re gonna be left with is greasy, dehydrated hair if you don’t wash it weekly.

Avoiding getting a hair cut will not grant you healthy or long hair.

Hair grows an average of half an inch per month, regardless of race. The belief that “Black hair doesn’t grow” is rooted in anti-Blackness. 😅 If you’re not seeing growth, then it’s most likely that your hair is simply breaking off faster than the rate of growth, or you have an underlying health issue that needs to be addressed by a doctor.

I know I used to hate hairdressers who seemed “scissor happy” because I was always chasing length, so I would often only tell them to “dust” the ends if they do anything. Now, I will grab my clippers and cut inches off my hair in a heartbeat if my hair starts looking raggedy. Clinging on to scraggly hair because it takes “so long to grow” doesn’t do you any favors, trust me. 😭 Take better care of your hair and you will retain length a lot easier, and that includes getting quarterly haircuts.

Porosity does not matter.

How many of us did this whole “put a strand of hair in a cup of water and see if it floats or sinks”? Well, what if I told you that it means absolutely nothing for everyday hair care? 😭 Porosity isn’t even a static state, so many things can change it on a dime!

The only time porosity matters is if you are getting a color service and that is only for your stylist to determine. And you will never see a stylist worth their salt putting your hair in a cup of water to figure it out. Also, a lot of “low” porosity hair is just product build up.

Using home remedies to address hair loss concerns doesn’t work.

No, it doesn’t matter that your grandma did black tea rinses regularly to stop her hair from shedding. It doesn’t matter what women in India do with their hair, either. This may be a hard pill to swallow, but it’s perfectly okay to evolve past things that aren’t truly helpful even if it’s a Black culture staple.

Please don’t be afraid to go to a dermatologist. 🥺 There’s even a Black Dermatologist Directory to reference if you don’t wanna go to just anybody. Yeah, it may seem pricey, but Dermatologists have the training to cut through the guesswork, pinpoint what the problem is and save you a LOT of time and pain. You don’t wanna fuck around and make your hair loss WORSE by doing psuedo-chemistry in your kitchen.

“Do what works for you” doesn’t have the mileage you think it does.

When people don’t want to hear that their current hair practices aren’t really helping them, they default to “Well, it works for ME!” or “Everyone’s hair is different!”

Nobody’s hair is so different that it doesn’t need a weekly wash with shampoo. Nobody’s hair is the magical unicorn that grew 4 inches in a month because they used JBCO. Your hair is not “built different”, and believing that it is will lead you to spending money on things you don’t need. Doing what works for you only comes after you have nailed the basics of healthy hair care, and it only varies in like… if you prefer to use styling foam to set your wash n go as opposed to gel. Or using one brand’s shampoo over another. Not “my hair likes butters and oils and staying in protective styles for months on end and is doing just fine, and you telling me otherwise is anti-Black”.

If you have unexamined hatred of your natural hair texture, then nothing in this long-ass post will hit for you. If a large part of your identity as a Black person is rooted in product chasing, protective styles and taking an entire business day to wash your hair, then a lot of this will offend you. I’m really sorry for that, and I am not here to argue with anybody. I’ll just tell you “if you like it, I love it” and go on about my business.

For everyone else, I really hope this post helps to shed some light on hair care and set you on a better journey that gives you more time and more confidence in your styles! 🥹

#this post long as hell and I absolutely forgot how to do a read more cut #I hope y’all got that automatic post reducer option toggled cause I know that saved my life 😂 #but as you can see I’m very passionate on saving my people trial and error in hair care #cause seriously if I was told this ages ago I would have gone natural way before now #the hardest part for most folks I think will be the mindset change required to let go of bad habits #cause no matter what the facts say if you not ready to hear it then 🤷🏽‍♀️ can’t be helped! #black hair care #natural hair care #hair care tips

[autumnalwalker]

A Dream About A Change In Plans

I am in line waiting for the simulator to try out to become a mech pilot.  Just before my turn I am approached by men in suits who pull me out of the line.  They have found out that I am already a robot, and they have a different, more fitting program for the likes of me. 

I am escorted to a black-curtained tent, glowing purple and white from within with the light of monitors and medical equipment.  Inside, scientists, engineers, and intelligence officers scurry about underneath the eyes of brooding generals. It is an emergency installation for an off-the-books project made permanent.  Just by having seen the inside, my fate is sealed for the sake of security and secrets.

My body is taken apart and put back together with new limbs and interface ports for weapons and armor that I will only be allowed to wear when deployed.  My mind is retrofitted with proprietary software suites for targeting solutions, evasive maneuvers, tactical libraries, killing instincts, and a sense of naked vulnerability whenever I am not fully kitted out for destruction. Little in-between is allowed for the extremes of intoxicating raw power and pliant helplessness. 

I am moved to a part of the base dedicated to the storage of vehicles and equipment when not in use rather than the parts where people live, sleep, and socialize.  I rarely get to see the mechs except when deployed alongside them; they’re stored in the other part of the base because their pilots can’t bear to be too far from them.  Instead I am put away with the other combat dolls; my “new sisters.”

Music is a large part of our lives.  Music to hype us up for a fight.  Music to calm us down afterwards.  Music to try to make us just a little bit human so that we can still work alongside our flesh-and-blood counterparts.  We do little else outside of deployments but lie in wait in our storage unit listening to track after track on loop.  Electronica and J-pop idol music are the go-to genres, but I am constantly annoying my new sisters with my inordinate fondness for Jimmy Buffet slipping into the playlist.

An entity that should not be here appears before me.  I do not like what it has to say, and it does not matter what I say.  I am currently without my armor, and thus weak and useless, but I try to attack it anyway.  The entity disappears and a moment later the base is awash in the red inverted candle flame of a great ship’s propulsion drive.  None of the base’s human personnel survive, and I barely do.  I sift through the debris to find my sisters, silently telling myself over and over that this isn’t my fault.  I find them and we make a plan to keep searching what is left of the base to see if any of our armor components survived.  Once we are closer to being while we can figure out what comes next from there.  

#writeblr #writers on tumblr #my writing #my dreams #empty spaces #dreams #dreamposting #combat doll #robot girl

[the-boss-of-the-port-mafia]

Character Overview; Ougai Mori

❖ Name

; Ougai Mori

Moris real life counterpart, Lieutenant-General Mori Rintarō (森 林太郎, February 17, 1862 – July 8, 1922), known by his pen name Mori Ōgai (森 鷗外), was a Japanese Army Surgeon general officer, translator, novelist, poet and father of famed yaoi author Mari Mori.

❖ Nicknames/Titles

; Sir | Boss | Master | Sensei | Ōgai Mori-dono | Doctor

; Grand Marshal of Outer Space | Mr. Midlife Crisis | Rintarō

❖ Age

; 40 (present) | 36 (Dark Era) | 33 (Fifteen) | 32 (Mafia Boss succession) | 28 (Post-Great War) | 26 (The Great War)

❖ Birthday

; February 17

❖ Ethnicity

; Japanese

❖ Gender | Pronouns

; Male | He-Him-His

❖ Height | Weight

175 cm (5'9") | 60kg (132 lbs)

❖ Blood Type

; O

❖ Occupation

; Mafia Boss | Underground Doctor (former) | Japanese Army Surgeon general officer (former)

❖ Status

; Alive

❖ Likes

; Theory, sweet red bean chazuke

❖ Dislikes

; Dirty things, raw food, mackerel in miso

❖ Family

; No biological family mentioned | Elise (poses as daughter)

❖ Ability

; Vita Sexualis

His ability, Vita Sexualis (ヰタ・セクスアリス,, Wita Sekusuarisu?), is an ability that allows Mori to summon and 'configure' Elise's personality in any way he wills; he can make her levitate, chase after an enemy at high speed, and make her save him no matter what. He can summon Elise as he pleases though it takes a lot of physical energy to do so. And make her attack his enemies with a barrage of large medical equipment.

His ability is based on a book, written by his real life counter part. Vita Sexualis, tells the story of his own journey into sexual awareness, leading to his confusion as he deals with his own asexuality in a society he thinks is oversexualised.

❖ Qoutes

; "I like this city, its dark, seedier parts included… But parasites like you nauseate me."

; “A logical, optimal solution exists in any wartime situation, no matter how difficult the challenge. You must not forget that, especially in times of confusion when you might feel inclined to recklessness.”

; “The leader of an organisation is at the pinnacle of the organization and, at the same time, he is its slave. The leader must be more than willing to commit any atrocity in order to insure the survival of the organization.”

; “Only a diamond can polish a diamond.”

❖ Trivia

; Being a strategist, he has read many works concerning game theory and war tactics and is an expert on the topic.

; Elise calls him "Rintaro", which is the author Mori Ōgai's birth name. It is unknown if this is Mori's real name as well.

; His preferred weapon is a scalpel.

; The author joined the military in order to study medicine, rising in rank to a head surgeon, reflecting the mafia boss' previous occupation as an underground doctor.

; He knows how to disarm a bomb

; He doesn’t know how to play chess

#bsd #bongou stray dogs #ougai mori #mori ougai #mori ougai headcanons #character info #Mori #bungou stray dogs

[anti-dazai-blog]

32-33- Thousands of lives risked on a gamble (and other complaints)

Welcome back to the Anti-Dazai Series!!

School starts late August this year, meaning this will be the final entry I’ll post before my classes start. But rest assured that no matter how long the gap between entries becomes, the Anti-Dazai Series is NOT dead or abandoned! So long as I never explicitly say that I’ve gotten bored of this, I will continue posting here–

Now onto what you’re here for—

—-------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 32 has no Dazai content, since its focus is Poe and Ranpo. Meaning we’re moving right on to chapter 33–

Dazai and Ranpo have a strategist meeting to decide the agency’s next move. Dazai went into this meeting with ulterior motives: to present the idea of Atsushi infiltrating the Guild’s Moby Dick alone, as to have him team up with Akutagawa once they’ve both already boarded. With that in mind, the way Dazai and Ranpo’s conversation plays out is rather interesting. Rather than going back and forth putting multiple ideas on the table, Dazai throws in a few specific combinations of agency members to send in, knowing they’re a bad match for this mission. Ranpo knows this too, and points out why each of these combos wouldn’t work. Once those purposely wrong solutions are shot down, Dazai suggests sending Atsushi in. Since this would technically work, Ranpo approves of this suggestion and allows the agency to go forward with it.

Dazai’s tactics here are classic but effective. He suggests subtly bad ideas, knowing that Ranpo will see through the flaws in each one, and then hands him a plan that wouldn’t automatically fail, knowing it would have to be approved. It also casts the illusion that all other options were analyzed, even though only a few specific combinations of agency members were considered. In a way, it’s also a standard “make them think it was their own idea so they’ll agree”. Dazai prompts Ranpo into giving the solution he’s aiming for, so he could move his “create a rivalry-partnership” plan forward.

After Dazai’s done ensuring Atsushi will have a Very Bad Time aboard the Moby Dick, he goes to visit Ango to negotiate Kyoka’s release. Ango, as you may recall, is currently recovering from a car crash. That Dazai caused. He’s stuck in a hospital bed in a full body cast. So Dazai’s greeting of “You look lovely! ;)” just seems like rubbing salt in the wound. But let’s be real, this kind of cruel mockery is exactly what can be expected of him. 

Note that Dazai not only caused the accident to begin with, but also removed the airbags on Ango’s side of the car, to ensure he gets as injured as possible. 

I’ll give him credit for negotiating for Kyoka’s release– Kyoka doesn’t seem to have any part in his grand Atsushi-related plans, so for once he’s doing something good for someone else without it being a part of his grand schemes. However, negotiating for anything in exchange for medical attention for the grievous bodily harm you intentionally caused someone is Very Messed Up, to say the least.

And now it’s time for the long-awaited mission. 

Dazai, as per his previously stated plan, sends Atsushi into the Mody Dick alone. Atsushi is reasonably stressed about this, and being the world’s most encouraging mentor, Dazai explains that it makes sense for him to be the one chosen for this, since “[Atsushi’s] the guy who runs away the fastest.” I’m sure Atsushi found courage in that reminder.

Once he boards the Mody Dick, he discovers that the mission was misrepresented to him (in more ways than one, but we’ll get to that). Or to put it more simply– he was intentionally lied to to get him to agree to do this in the first place. He discovers that the Moby Dick is set on a course to crash in Yokohama, and the only way to stop it is to retrieve the control terminal guarded by Francis. Dazai and Ranpo were both aware that this was the Guild’s plan based on their previous conversation during the strategy meeting (“mountain?” “no, sea”). This could have easily been relayed to Atsushi to allow him an opportunity to mentally prepare himself or plan ahead. Yet they allowed this to be suddenly sprung upon him by Melville, causing more unnecessary panic in an already tense situation.

But let’s draw our attention back to the problem itself: the Moby Dick, a giant airship, is about a come crashing down upon a densely populated city. If only we knew of an ability user who could prevent this from happening– Perhaps someone who could… simply decide whether or not any object should fall in the first place? If only we knew someone like that! Unfortunately our easy solution to this problem is in the Port Mafia, and as per Dazai’s conversation with Mori in this chapter, we know that per Dazai’s request, the Mafia is not to interfere with the agency’s current mission to stop the Moby Dick from killing everyone. 

Let me reiterate: Dazai made sure to make a prior agreement with the mafia that they won’t interfere in stopping the Moby Dick from crashing–something  that could potentially kill thousands of innocent people, that a single specific mafia member could easily solve in a matter of seconds– all for the sake of putting Atsushi and Akutagawa in a situation where they would have to work together, thus forming his rivalry-partnership that he’s so invested in. THOUSANDS of people’s lives were risked for a gamble that had no guarantee of paying off. 

Atsushi is, of course, unaware of all of that. And Akutagawa thinks he’s acting on his own free will when he disobeys his boss’s orders and boards the Moby Dick. And now that Akutagawa’s here– yet another factor that Dazai orchestrated in advance, Atsushi has yet another one of Dazai’s pawns here with him to add to his ever-growing stress. 

And that’s that for this week’s entry of the Anti-Dazai Series!! Join me next week when I talk about how Akutagawa is just a traumatized child who desperately needs a great therapist and a hug. And so does Atsushi. So does everyone who has to deal with Dazai. Actually while we’re at it can we get Dazai a therapist too? He probably needs one just as much as everyone else.

#anti dazai series #Atsushi needs to be wrapped up in a little blanket and given some hot cocoa and a tiny little kiss on the forehead #He’s just a little guy and he’s been through so much #No but seriously the stuff this guy has been through #We all overlook his trauma in favor of the characters with the more unique brands of Trauma #Also why does the government not have any magical healing ability users on staff #Why does Ango not have access to proper healthcare without access to Yosano #Someone check Ango’s healthcare plan #Tell me if my guy’s properly covered #Because it sure doesn’t seem like it #Bsd #bungo stray dogs #bungou stray dogs #dazai #atsushi #ango

[rhube]

They Don't Care About Other People

I feel like we've spent the last decade saying:

I don't know how to convince you that you should care about other people.

And it felt cathartic because we had identified the problem and we all recognised the pain we felt when confronted with our inability to solve it.

But after many years of this, I've realised that's not enough. And what the right have shown us is that:

You cannot convince them to care about other people. They don't. And they're not going to.

What we identified before was OUR problem. Our emotional problem. Our personal grief when we met the edifice of uncaring.

But the thing is, bringing that out into the open didn't change anything. It felt like it should have. That the right should have gone, 'Oh shit! I'm not caring about other people when I say these things and do these things! That's a fundamentally important thing to do and I should change!'

But they didn't, and they won't.

We can make some nuanced points if we like about how they care about the individuals they're close to. But it amounts to the same. They care about the people they regard as their property or 'their own' in some way (racial groups, class, sex etc). But they don't care about OTHERS and they never will.

Some of that is pure simple selfishness, maybe sociopathy in some (although I have known left-wing, moral sociopaths - it is important not to stigmatise medical diagnoses; I know a philosopher who self-described as a sociopath who operated under reasoned moral principles, being a sociopath does not always mean being a dick), but it can also be because the individual's moral outlook is absolutist and deontological (things just are right or wrong, independent of empathy or consequence; this can be because they are divine commandments, or from atheistic philosophies centred on reason - there are lots of different sources, it's not JUST American Puritanism or capitalism or fascism - although these things often work together). Whatever the framework, the point is that these people will NEVER be convinced by an appeal to empathy. Their belief system is structured such that, even if they do empathise with, eg, the plight of the poor, they actively don't think they should be swayed from their course by pity. They may even see it as a test of character.

That, cobbled together with the limitations of their empathy (only caring about themselves or the people they are close to) makes them virtually unassailable, as a group.

Yes, individuals can be swayed one-on-one, from time to time, but you don't win the battle that way.

Because they are wholesale targeting us in an onslaught with every dirty trick at their disposal.

There are concerted efforts by distinct groups (in the manner of Cambridge Analytica) funnelling money into paid trolls and bot farms and AI to overwhelm and manipulate our emotions. Those armies are 100% empathy-proof because they are either literally not real humans, or they are paid shills.

So, it's time to reframe the problem.

The problem is not:

I don't know how to convince you that you should care about other people

It's:

They do not care about others, and they never will.

Our task is to figure out how to fight a group of people who don't care about Others.

Literally, those who they other and don't see as part of their group.

And the solution isn't to mimic them, buying up bot farms trained to pull on their heartstrings the way they persuade left-wing people to become anti-trans via women's rights or whatever. Not just because it's duplicitous, but because THEY DON'T CARE ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE.

They don't care about the things we care about, so the tactics that work on us won't work on them!

The answer is to look to ourselves.

Most of us are poor (or at least a fuck of a lot poorer than the people funneling the money into bot farms). We can't BUY them. We can't fund massive media campaigns (although there is great work being done by people like Led by Donkeys).

But what we have is NUMBERS. Each othered group (except for women) is small. But our combined slices far outnumber them.

That's why they're putting so much effort into gerrymandering constituencies, to ensure the popular vote never wins.

There are far, far more people who are not straight, white, able, cis, male, and rich, than those who are. Note that those who are not rich are often persuaded to side with the rich on the dream that they one day may be, or the idea that that list is a solid group, and why would you not align yourself with the elements of yourself that have privilege?

But the chances are that if you are one of those things you aren't all of the others. Your needs don't actually align with that narrow group.

The current state of affairs only aids a small number.

WE HAVE THE NUMBERS.

We must band together.

We must take COLLECTIVE ACTION.

Strikes.

Vote drives.

Writing to representatives.

Petitions.

Strategic voting.

Fucking crab day.

Seize upon the ways that we can JOIN TOGETHER and DO THINGS TOGETHER.

There are more of us than there are of them.

We can make it not merely so that it doesn't matter that they don't care about other people, but rather that it is their DOWNFALL.

Because not caring about the vast majority of people is, actually, fucking stupid.

Large groups of people can vote, and protest, and when we're prevented from doing that, we can fucking riot.

They may not be able to empathise with us, but if we can make them fucking SCARED.

#they don't care about other people #politics #capitalism

[acrossthewavesoftime]

Corset Discourse (Sort of), Full Metal Cuirass Edition

Bad back? Get your new stylish piece of shiny, tactical, bullet-proof, manly, metal medical equipment today! [attention there, sarcasm alert]

I know we're all bored and tired of Corset Discourse, but I stumbled across this and, although not concerning women's undergarments, but in this case 17th century medical back braces (and cuirasses):

The following two excerpts are from a biography of William III (1650-1702), and... you'll see:

From: John van der Kiste, William of Orange, Stroud 2003, p. 10.

Child being put into a support garment prescribed by the medical experts of the time in order to counter a diagnosed curvature of the spine:

"[R]estricting", plus the implication that a simple change of scenery to visit family improved the condition the likely brace-like supportive structure was mean to correct enough that it could be discarded.

From: John van der Kiste, William of Orange, Stroud 2003, p. 4.

Same child growing up into a physically functioning, if perhaps not fit adult whose day job involves getting shot at by enemy armies:

The cuirass was obviously worn as a medical support device in day-to-day life. The abundance of portraiture of said individual featuring armour could not possibly be due to the sitter wanting to emphasise his role as military commander, who, you know, sometimes participated in battle where a cuirass counts as sensible protective gear.

The author clearly frames the cuirass as a 'manly' solution to a serious medical issue, which is further outlined by the implication in the first excerpt that taking up hunting and visiting relatives had a positive effect on his condition, whereas the prescribed medical support garment was purely described as "restrictive", without giving any further context as to how the 17th equivalent of back braces were designed, intended to work or the wearer's prospects for improvement were.

Connecting the two excerpts, it is also remarkable how the author claims that the premature removal of the original back support brace or garment was deemed to be of "no longer any serious risk of deformity", yet the adult William of Orange is described as having a "visibly humped back." Some things don't add up here narratively.

Some other things don't add up historically, either; while it seems likely that William III indeed suffered from an abnormal curvature of the spine, contemporary sources do not describe him as having a "visibly humped back," and there is no record indicating he needed specific back support to take part in equestrian pastimes.

Ah yes, wearing medical device is "restrictive", someone hand the chap a manly cuirass and put him on a horse!

And last but not least, a question to any possible wearers of armour on this site: I am aware that plate armour is incredibly flexible, but in how far would a cuirass offer comfortable back support? I feel that there might be an argument made to it ensuring a straight posture, but whether it would be comfortable to wear over a longer period of time, or indeed helpful with any potentially painful back issues is a topic I do not feel knowledgeable enough to speak on-- your input would be greatly valued!

#history #17th century #corset discourse #sort of #history of medicine #william iii #william of orange #(since we don't know which it was) #back brace #armour #arms and armour #disability in media

[mariacallous]

The problem is that vengeance is neither a strategy nor a tactic. The Israeli government doesn’t have the right to defend its citizens but the duty to do so. And it failed miserably. At these critical hours, it has the responsibility to act for the immediate release of the captives and abductees. It must do whatever it takes to assist in locating those who are missing and remove civilians from harm’s way. Sending tanks into the Gaza Strip, or damaging the infrastructure required for humanitarian needs and targeting Gaza’s civilian population, is not a solution but will only exacerbate the already catastrophic situation. One does not need a sick imagination to envision ISIS-style televised executions of hostages nor to see how a military reaction might flare up Israel’s northern border with Lebanon. Recent events give us good reason to fear that tensions within Israel’s mixed cities could reach a boiling point; The delicate, already scarred tissue of cohabitation might be finally torn apart. With an extreme right-wing government in power, one can trust any large-scale military maneuver will be accompanied by draconian emergency laws and a denial of basic civil liberties. This would not save lives – neither of Israeli citizens nor of approximately 2.2 million Palestinians who have been suffocating for years in Gaza’s refugee camps and have nothing to lose besides their chains. Hamas planned the October 7 attack, expecting an Israeli retaliation and preparing for a potential land invasion. It would be a disastrous walk into a death trap. 

About 200 Israeli citizens were violently abducted to the Gaza Strip and are now being held there, alive, including women, children, and elderly needing medical assistance and care. At the time of writing, dozens of media outlets report that the Israeli government is refusing a humanitarian prisoner exchange deal brokered by Egypt and Qatar under which Israel would release about 30 Palestinian women prisoners in exchange for the release of the Israeli women and children captured by Hamas. Rejection of such a proposal is unthinkable. Instead, we see an exceedingly long line of politicians, pundits, and ex-generals sermonizing the need to “dismantle Hamas” and “flatten Gaza.” For an Israeli, this choreography is familiar ad nauseam: if only those ex-generals would have been as eager to do their job of defending civilians as they are eager to storm the TV studios; if only those propagandists would stop being a caricature of Herr Kantorek, the nationalist teacher from Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, full of bravado and talk about the bruised national honor, happy to send others to be killed in the trenches. They will talk about the need to restore Israel’s “deterrence” – as if deterrence is a human being that needs to be saved and not the captives that are held hostage – and they will call for revenge. As a Jew, this rhetoric makes me sick: open calls for lynching and widescale population transfer, “gloves off” genocidal violence against modern Amalek. It echoes the darkest moments in Jewish history. 

I plagiarized the title of this piece – The War Against Cliché – from the late Martin Amis. In a similar spirit, I call upon us to free ourselves from fixed, ready-made forms of thought and expression, to think rather than surrender to atavistic Pavlovian conditioning. After 40 weeks of political and social turmoil, many Israelis feel that, in addition to physical security, they are grappling with a total breakdown of trust and a state apparatus that cares very little about their wellbeing. At such times, they do not need a hysterical speech from an incompetent defense minister, ordering a complete siege on the Gaza Strip with no electricity, food or water that would create a humanitarian disaster because “we are fighting human animals”; nor do they deserve a president who embodies the Peter Principle, climbing the ladder by failing every previous job he had, incapable of saying a single sentence that does not contain an overused phrase. Israelis cling to stories of the incredible bravery of ordinary citizens who found themselves in impossible situations, like Rachel Edri, a working-class Moroccan-born woman from Ofakim, who did not lose her cool and conversed with her kidnappers in Arabic, offering them coffee and cookies, while the police SWAT teams surrounded the house. Israelis need the gregarious valor of those who would negotiate with enemies to save lives. The gap between the generosity and magnanimity displayed by Israel’s civil society and its politicians’ pettiness and poor thinking has never been as great as it is today. If we want to save lives, the only war we should launch now is a war against deadly clichés. If someone will cry “humiliation” at you, answer: “humility.” Both derive from the same root, the first a sign of indignation, while the other – a virtue. 

If Israel learned anything from the Yom Kippur War, perhaps the most painful and traumatic war in its history, it is that its power has limits. A half-century ago, thousands of lives were lost so that a rigid paradigm of thought would be scrutinized, without which one could not have jump-started the process that ended in a peace treaty with Egypt, Israel’s previous archnemesis. Ultimately, as William James wrote, nations are not saved by wars but “by acts without external picturesqueness; by speaking, writing, voting reasonably; by smiting corruption swiftly; by good temper between parties; by the people knowing true men when they see them, and preferring them as leaders to rabid partisans or empty quacks.”

[opinated-user]

"I made the mistake of giving a shit about something" reads like something I would have written prior to getting medicated for my Bipolar Disorder. While I cannot and should not diagnose LO with anything over the internet, these kinds of destructive, "I should give up on everything" thoughts are common among people with mood disorders who are having a mental health episode. Approaching this with good faith and assuming that it is not in any way a manipulation tactic actually makes this more concerning, not less.

I understand that getting mental health care and finding the right medication takes time and is an imperfect process. However, I do believe that these depressive episodes are impacting her quality of life, and that she should start trying to find a solution to this. What avenue of mental health care to pursue, she would know better than I would, but I don't think that this kind of public breakdown is going to help her through this.

Even though LO is known for manipulation, a part of me recognizes something genuine in this. She needs to pause and focus on self-care instead of focusing on the internet. That's what it took for me to get to a better place and it's worth it. I just wish she'd actually do it instead of spiraling like this. I've been there, it sucks, but it's not somewhere she has to be mentally.

(And before anyone goes "well her spouse/friends should help her", mental health is not that simple. If pure love cured illnesses, we wouldn't have nearly as many mentally ill people as we do in the world.)

anon, i deeply respect your intention to try to give LO the benefit of the doubt and treat her compassionately... but i don't really believe is that deep. as said in other post, she has done this exact thing before, multiple times. the only thing that comes out out is that she goes about her business as usuall or she'll make up some other huge lie so we talk about that instead. this is not to say that she couldn't be going through a dark time... but that's out of our business already. we can't know what LO's mind is at or what she needs or what she feels inside or does when no one is watching. i absolutely agree that LO would probably benefit from receiving real therapy from an actual licenced therapist and her way to conduct herself is probably not the healthiest or more productive, but i or anyone else can't say anything else. the only thing we can do is react to what we see out in the public. LO publicly made this whole show about being harassed, without showing any proof of harassment, right after we call out her terf utopia as a terf utopia. those are the facts. anything beyond that is pure speculation that we can't confirm, and it wouldn't be in our power to do anything about it either.

#lily orchard

[beardedmrbean]

Medical professionals sounded off after the latest "Twitter Files" release showed that both the Trump and Biden administrations made efforts to suppress views and ideas about COVID-19 that contradicted the White House’s official stance. 

Independent journalist David Zweig tweeted the findings Monday, explaining that certain ideas and questions about COVID-19 by doctors and scientists were suppressed during the pandemic.

"Dissident yet legitimate content was labeled as misinformation, and the accounts of doctors and others were suspended both for tweeting opinions and demonstrably true information," Zweig added.

Dr. Marc Siegel, a Fox News medical contributor, criticized the government’s  attempts to label legitimate concerns as "misinformation."

"Very disturbing," Siegel said on "Fox & Friends" Tuesday. "Censorship, especially coming from the government, is on the road to totalitarianism."

The Trump administration was reportedly trying to prevent panic when the pandemic emerged, a tactic Siegel argued doesn’t work.

"I don't think you can control panic by controlling information," Siegel told host Griff Jenkins. "You cause panic by doing that." 

The Biden administration reportedly focused on the spread of vaccine misinformation. Zweig shared an example of Dr. Martin Kulldorff, a professor at Harvard Medical School, who was flagged for his view that children and those who have already contracted COVID-19 don’t need to be vaccinated. 

Dr. Siegel stressed the importance of free and open debate, especially in such uncertain times as the pandemic. 

"I don't actually agree completely with [Kulldorff’s] statements on how he feels the vaccine works," Siegel clarified. "But you know what I do believe in? His right to say so. His right to say so on Twitter and anywhere else he wants."

Fox News contributor Dr. Marty Makary praised Kulldorff Tuesday as being one of the "smartest, most accurate minds" since the emergence of the pandemic. He noted that Kulldorff served on the CDC’s advisory group on child vaccinations but was then dismissed on Twitter for having a differing opinion.

"That’s unfortunately the state of repair that we need to engage in," Makary said on "Fox & Friends First." "I think public health officials look really bad for this. The public needs an apology."

Makary said the solution to this censorship issue is to remove the "gag rule" on government-employed scientists who are prohibited from speaking directly to members of the media. 

He then warned that the pandemic-era censorship negatively impacted science, and he called out the government for pushing its own misinformation. 

"This has been going on for a long time, where state-controlled media censors all information that is not aligned with the leading political party in power. And that's sadly what we're seeing right here," he added.

"There's a long list of misinformation from the government. They just wanted to change the narrative."

#nunyas news #neither party is innocent here