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Such as bullets coming from a pistol towards a human head. Is that a good argument to not avoid any danger?

The catridge of a pistol is lethal because of its speed of 700-900 m/s. If I would move of at a speed of 700-900 m/s and would move into a catridge that is just hanging on a band facing in my direction would there be a difference between that and being shot?

This is also a great example of where a taser would have been more effective. The problem with a pistol is that you have to hesitate a lot more before firing. A taser you can fire without worrying. Especially when you have multiple cops on the scene. The one leading should be using a taser, with the others pistols as backup if the taser misses. There was no need to shoot this guy. It didn't even stop him effectively and could have killed the woman.

That's where a taser would have been good. A taser can be more effective at stopping a person than a pistol -- paradoxically. You won't be driving away like that if you're zapped.

Here's a 2-shot taser solution every cop should have: https://www.axon.com/products/taser-x2 Also, reloading a taser is not that slow. It reloads as fast as a pistol. I have one.

That's why you have a taser in one hand and a gun in the other. It's not hard to pull a pistol after you fire your taser. This should be done in cases were the criminal is far away and clearly has no firearm.

By November 1923, Hitler was convinced that the Weimar Republic was on the verge of collapse and, together with General Ludendorff and local nationalist groups, sought to overthrow the Bavarian government in Munich. Bursting into a beer-hall in Munich and firing his pistol into the ceiling, he shouted out that he was heading a new provisional government which would carry through a revolution against “Red Berlin.” Hitler and Ludendorff then marched through Munich at the head of 3,000 men, only to be met by police fire which left sixteen dead and brought the attempted putsch to an ignominious end.

Yes. What helped me here, since its always a question of definition (for example of the Supreme Witness): You are that which is aware. And the Totality of Reality itself, since it can only show up in that which is aware. But the Totality of Reality is often only seen as that which appears (The appearance side). And that can totally disappear (Deep Sleep), and the real you is still there, unaware of itself, but with a latent capacity for sentience if something appears again (the emptiness or consciousness/aware side). So the question is: How "empty" is the Supreme Witness. When it is so empty that no arisings/feeling (very subtle I-feelings/I-thoughts) arise and appear in the Totality (call it Reality, Infinite Consciousness, God, Dharmakaya, whatever you want), or you clearly see them all as objects/arisings/movements within you, then what you realize yourself to be very obviously is the Totality/Reality/Infinite Consciousness,... . The stage before that is the Supreme Witness, or Empty Witness: Ken Wilber calls that the Empty Witness: Personality, and especially time and space are already transcended, "you" feel the infinite reality as mere appearance, timeless. And always here. But there are still some clusters of sensations arising IN YOU that feel like individuality, or that you are not the unbounded whole, but a feeling of watching it appears in you. You are not all of it, the sensation of "other" still arise a lot in daily life, you dont feel that you what looks from all eyes is the same consciousness that gets clouded by feelings/thoughts of I/me, exactly like how it used to get clouded in you. The realization is neither stable, nor complete. And then at some point you realize that (learn to spot) these arisings/feelings/building blocks of the Supreme Witness or Empty Witness are still left and arising/moving in you. You learn to spot them in a sort of High-Speed-Analysis, recognize them as arisings/objects appearing within you, and you can stop them immediately (subject->object), or just watch them. Then they drop, the Empty Witness drops, and the real you stays. But that is described by some as impersonal, a formulation that I am not totally happy with. Yes, its impersonal, its not the you you thought you were, but its the real you. And that real you "has" or "contains" the personal you moving in it. Then that boosts the nondual state, makes the whole world appear just as mere appearance, an imagined illusion, infinite, groundless, a mirage happening within you (that also starts before, but gets boosted a lot the more the Empty Witness drops). Pretty much a state that Psychedelics cause, but sobre. And with it comes happiness and bliss independend of what happens at that moment, which is the most beautiful aspect of it. If you dont have nonduality and nonseparation and are not aware of the Ground of Being in normal life (while not meditating or tripping), these very subtle arisings/I-feelings/I-thoughts still arise in you and are not spotted with high enough speed to see them for what they are: Sensations of separation arising within the real you. In my experience, you can not force real Nonduality/mere appearance of the totality/world, its an energetic state that gets influenced "indirectly" over how fast you spot these I-thoughts/I-feelings. Here I am fully in line when Leo says you need the right state (of enought nonduality, illusion-like mere appearance of the world, directly feeling it all as mere empty consciousness appearance mirage-arising). When you spot these subtle arisings (building blocks of the separate self and even Empty Witness) fast enough, they arise in you. But you can't force it with willpower, that would be what Daniel Brown in Pointing out the Great Way calls "artifical activity" during the stage of Nonmeditation Yoga (last stage of the 4 Mahamudra stages). It becomes automatic once you understand it at that stage. Its one of the Illusion-Mechanism of Maya that you can't force your way through it with willpower, but you can do it indirectly with understanding how to rest in your true nature. The energetic state of nonduality follows. Its some kind of positive feedback loop, sloping "upwards" if done correctly. I agree with Leo that Nonduality (which ripens) is in its early stages not realization of Ultimate Reality. Daniel Brown for example also. But realization of Ultimate Reality has to be nondual, since its a unity and infinite. And this development can pretty easily stagnate (especially before nonduality even begins to start), and stop if you do something incorrect, or understand something incorrect. Which pretty much happens with 99% of Buddhists. So the separate you disappears, but the real you as Awareness AND the Reality/World stays. So the Illusion-You disappears, but the real you is of course, as always, there. It can not "not be there". That is the Unborn, Reality itself. The real you. And in that area/stage definitions of different authors and traditions get very slippery, since these "feelings" of the Supreme Witness (as you intuit) are very very subtle, and its very easy to identify with them and not notice it. Over the years, I ended up with a metaphor for myself: Zen is like axe to cut a tree. Very robust, works if you do it long enough hard enough pretty foolproof, doesnt need a lot complex theory/stages, but normally takes a long time and is not so pleasant (and in practice for most doesnt deliver the final results, because it takes extreme willpower). More sophisticated versions of Buddhism, with a more detailed map, like Mahamudra/Dzogchen (see for example Brown, Pointing out the Great Way), are like a Forest Harvester: If used correctly very fast, quite pleasant (for the user, probably not for the forest) and comfortable along the path, but quite hard to understand and learn, since language is so slippery in these areas. Like if you want to use a Forest Harvester, and if you dont get explained how it works (like put gas in it, how to drive it, its controls), delivers no result at all. Zen = robust, sit long enough with a Koan and you get it, not much to misunderstand, but neither very fast nor pleasant Mahamudra/Dzogchen = very sophisticated with techniques and details and pointing out descriptions for every stage, but if used incorrectly (like not putting as into forest harvester) no result at all even if you do it a long time. Some Material for that stage I found useful: 1) Massaro, Spiritual Conversations with a Skeptic: "Imagine a formless, space-like void that's indestructible, sentient, awake, alive and aware, but has no form. You could almost say it has no self awareness. It just is. Russell: So wait... A void? A vacuum? Nothing? Bentinho: Yes. Just imagine it. Russell: OK, go ahead. Bentinho: The point of the analogy is that there is no object. Imagine infinite space with no stars or planets. Suddenly, you introduce a toy; let's say a water pistol. Or it could be a body even. But let's say... Russell: An object. Bentinho: Yeah, an object. A water pistol. Russell: With water in it. Bentinho: Maybe with Coca-Cola in it. Russell: With Coca-Cola in it. OK. Bentinho: Ah! Now there is something. Something is created. First there is this space, which is like the pure subject with no reference points. It's like space, but it's not actually space. Russell: Wait... where am I in relation to this infinite space? Bentinho: You are it. Russell: I am it? Bentinho: Yes. Russell: OK. But there is nothing in it at first. Bentinho: Correct. There is nothing in it at all; there is just Infinity. Russell: But I am in it. Bentinho: You are it. " 2) How other perspectives/beings work: A Human is aware of only his perspective (normally). But Infinite Consciousness can forget in time (what did you do exactly one year ago), or to be more precice NOT imagine that memory, and it can forget in space (metaphor of Francis Lucille). To get an idea watch the cover of this book of Marc Leavitt. Notice the hyperbolic geometry of the awareness fields shown. Reality is made of perspectives (Ken Wilber, Concept of Indras Net). Reality is a giant mind (Leo, and more or less all traditions). https://www.amazon.com/Enlightenment-Behind-Scenes-Marc-Leavitt/dp/1495398218 3) How to Approach Phenomenal Consciousness, Jac O'keeffe. She calls Ultimate Reality Totality Primary Consciousness "the fundamental primary phenomenal consciousness (her name for Ultimate Reality, Infinite Consciousness, the real you), it has a capacity. It doesn't even know itself here. However, it has a capacity to show up with a sense of emptiness (a subtle arising feeling/perception happening in you). To show up as one. To show up as a one who can reflect on itself and recognize that it is, and we have the concept of existence. And it can go from that sense of vast spaciousness and that unified field into time, which appears as a dot. " "We're left with consciousness (-> Primary Consciousness) that cannot know itself. It's such a fundamental that it actually can't know itself. However, it is known. You can drop back there and it is known, but you can't bring yourself there or your capacities to know it. It's almost like it's so fundamental that it can't turn around and see itself. It doesn't see itself. That's too much movement (arisings, objects, subtle I-feelings/I-thoughts, not fully empty/infinite). That's movement such as space, time and identification and me, myself, I, and the building of my movie that happens" Here she describes how Primary Consciousness is so empty that it cant turn around to see itself. Because that turning around would already be a movement, a arising, a subtle object within Primary consciousness/Real you. 4) Stephen Wolinsky, or how Empty is your Empty Witness or Supreme Witness: from Wolinsky, Nothing Comes From Nothing " Knowing or being aware of or consciousness of who you are is “one step” away from being who you are. This is why the Buddha said, “You might not necessarily be aware of your own enlightenment. Why? Because there is no aware-er or awareness or knower or knowingness, to be aware of or know or know about or be conscious of the Absolute. And why Lakshamann Joo said, “Whenever you perceive something, you perceive it from one level lower.” (remark: You can never see the Absolute Reality/Consciousness, cause looking or searching for it is a movement of attention WITHIN IT. But you can understand it, be it, intuit it, from one level lower. The Supreme Witness is one of the last movements IN YOU/Reality looking for absolute consciousness, inducing an experience of it, which of course is not it because it is you). Paradoxically As the Absolute there is no Absolute If the “I” or “you” “has an “experience” and believes it IS consciousness awareness infinite potential presence or that it IS an “imagined” infinity, then the “I” or “you” mistakenly assumes and projects that experience upon the Absolute. Once that occurs the “I” or “you” then completely believes and ergo experiences that the Absolute also has or IS the experience of consciousness has or IS the experience of awareness has or IS the experience of infinite potential has or IS the experience of presence has or IS the experience of an “imagined” infinite. Consciousness awareness infinite potential presence or an “imagined” infinite are the most subtle of the most subtle states and veils which give the illusion of awareness, the illusion of consciousness the illusion of presence and the illusion of both beingness and being conscious. This “experiential belief” of consciousness awareness infinite potential presence or an “imagined” infinite or “infinity, is an anthropomorphically projected experience of consciousness awareness infinite potential presence or an “imagined” infinite or “infinity. Thus giving the illusionary experience of awareness, the illusionary experience of consciousness the illusionary experience of presence and the illusionary experience of both beingness and being conscious. Which are then Superimposed on the Absolute Nothingness. Simply stated, the experience of consciousness awareness infinite potential presence or an “imagined” infinite or “infinity is an experience. This experience gives the illusion of a beingness, isness or existence to these temporary subtle veils and experiences which are made of nothing. The Absolute is without the Absolute Nothingness " 5) Prior to Nonduality Youtube-Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9vlZGtpdFIts8GOG5vu27g Mechanisms of Creation/Imagination/Manifestation: Its important and nice to find out HOW you imagine this world with all of its infinite mechanism. And the first and fundamental mechanisms on how imagination/manifestation (in any universe/dimension) can occur can be understood (for example how the fundamental archetypes of space and time (giving "objects" or appearances that change in time), and the first "movements" (even if they are formless) of appearances in consciousness are spawned out from the Infinite Consciousness/Reality. That is for example described by Ken Wilber as the manifestation of the first Archetypes at the causal stage (he calls it low causal, while high causal being the empty ultimate Godhead). But since Reality/Spirit/God is able to manifest/imagine infinite Worlds, with totally different mechanism than our universe for example, by definition one will never be able to understand all of their mechanisms, since you dont have access to all Realities (and you couldnt while being human). And you can never explore all of them, by definition of what Infinity means. That is what God/Reality itself is exploring. Leo mentioned that in "Outrageous Experiments In Consciousness - 30 Awakenings In 30 Days.", there are infinite dimensions of awakening. Which is, as mentioned, quite shocking. But for sure its nice and important to grasp the fundamental mechanism of imagination/manifestation, which apply to all universes/dimensions (since all are appearances), and understanding that in your deepest being you are that one Reality. I believe these fundamentals are important to understand and realize and experience. Else "you" are stuck with believing experiencing Nonduality or Emptiness is it, while that is only the start to realize Infinity. And you can of course realize the Groud of Being, your true nature. But one can never explore all mechanism of manifestation, since a human in its limited time can never explore all realms of manifestation (and there are for examples according to Jac O'Keffee and Stephen Wolinsky some truly alien realms that are not build with the building blocks of this Universe. Yet they are also only appearances). So at some level one either says "Its details, and one can never explore all mechanism of manifestation, because even for God/Absolute Reality there are Infinite Realms of Appearances/Worls/Universes to explore", or it is a grasping for seeing as much as possible. Which is a high level recipe for nevery finding the constant peace/happiness independend of outer circumstances, the hallmark of the enlightened ones, and also nevery fully resting it. Maya is awe-inspiring, and her Illusion-Mechanisms (which are necessary for this Lila) go to the highest level also. But understanding the fundamental mechanism of how manifestation/imagination occurs, how you fool yourself (Maya), what ultimate Reality/God/Spirit is, what other is, how Maya works, what one really is and how one imagines otherwise, that is all essential. And of course humanity will go exploring all of that (manifestation/imagination mechanisms, mechanisms of Maya, "going Psychonaut" and exploring it, exploring Ken Wilbers subtle and low causal realms and mapping them. He even said in the next 1000 years probably many new substages will show up and getting formed & described during exploration). This understanding will grow. Buddhism has evolved in the past, there is not even one Buddhism, there are many different streams, some more developed/sophisticated/efficient than others. I don't think Buddhism will disappear, so it will change and evolve by definition. Buddhism happens in Infinity, not the other way round. And to conclude: I hope this is interesting and helpful for some of you. It took me a long time to understand why there are so many, often contradicting statements in the spiritual traditions/teachers/psychonautic explorers, and how Reality is structured (and the differing perspectives & statements it supports and brings forth on various stages/states) to enable and support all of these differing perspectives, experiences and viewpoints. For sure, this picture isn't complete, but at least for me tells a story that for me is sufficient to continue my practice in peace and enjoy what it brings into my life, be able to sort all these often conflicting messages in a large and hopefully integral perspective, and stay interested in how Reality is structured that all of that can appear in it (the psychonaut approach). And of course its nearly impossible to communicate all of that in language. In case anybody has read all of the above until here: A metaphor that, if I remember correctly, also Ken Wilber once used: Zen would deliver the much more precise summary, which is why I also like Zen a lot: The old pond, A frog jumps in: Plop! Matsuo Basho (1644-1694)

I think YOU ALL are the ones tripping! "Omg he loves his cat" "Omg he's a grown man and owns a pistol" "Omg I can maybe see a pubic hair" "Omg he's eating a small bowl of ice cream" ???? until he fucks his cat and start pistol whipping people RELAX. Maybe I'm just biased because I also love my cat, own a pistol and have pubic hair lol (not to mention the occasional bowl of ice cream)

I kinda disagree. Gym people often don’t choose bodyweight exercises but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t make similar gains with it. I think it’s more of a convenience and preference thing. There are incredible difficult bodyweight exercises where you can’t do a lot of reps. Ring flies or archer pull ups for example. You can’t tell me that a chest workout consisting of ring flies, chest dips and (elevated) push ups is less stimulating then a workout with dumbbells and machines. You cant increase weight directly unless you buy a belt or smth like that but you can increase the volume by making more sets, more reps (giant sets), (increase the difficulty of the exercise) and stuff like that. For legs the gym is probably better. But still when somebody can do many pistol squats his barbell squat will probably be advanced.

I do like 40 just to get my blood flowing. You have to challenge the muscle. Some sort of single leg squat is good. You don’t have to be able to do a pistol squats there a variations that are a lot easier. But there are also hamstrings, glutes, calves ? I don’t know what is healthier but if you don’t overtrain and do good technique both will be beneficial to your health in this regard because it strengthens these things. When I do some really heavy lifts like squats or deadlifts I sometimes can’t sleep well because my central nervous system took a big hit. That won’t happen in calisthenics as easily which is a plus for sleep. Are you vegan? If the 200g of legumes are pretty much your only source of protein that’s not ideal. You have to mix it with grains to get the full protein. Optimal protein intake for muscle building is 1g/pound bodyweight and for vegans 1.25-1.5/pound of bodyweight which sucks ass I know. You can also build muscle with less but it’s not ideal. No problem.

There’s a video online of a couple arguing with their neighbour in the US over shovelling snow The neighbour walks into his house, picks up a pistol, walks out and shoots both of them until they’re incapacitated, they’re still alive, he walks back into his house, picks up an AR-15, walks back out and shoots both of them dead while they’re screaming on the ground All of this happens in what seems to be a fairly normal, middle class, suburban neighbourhood Pretty much only in the US would this happen. No, it is not a safe country to live in

My grandfather who was a relatively higher-up officer in the then Yugoslav People's Army Airforce used to own a Zastava M88 semi-automatic 9x19 mm pistol in the apartment I visit and stay in where my grandmother lives as part of his officer's equipment kit when he was still in the military, but then he later had to return it to the army, since as I understood, the new gun ownership and usage for civilian self-defence purposes legislation passed by the new government in Serbia in the 2000-10s required permits, charged some extra ownership fees and maintenance regulations for anyone who wants to retain their, then relatively outdated, old guns they purchased or got from military service in their possession for civilian self-defense usage they then must strictly comply with these permits, regulations and charging fees if they wish to legally retain their gun as a civilian private citizen.

Does anyone on this forum actually own a firearm? Personally I do intend to own a small pocket pistol in the future for conceal carry purposes.

I mean how would you feel if I set up a pistol pointing at your house from my court yard next door, while I told you not to worry because I would never ever fire it ? There is a reason that's not legal and seen as aggressive/dangerous on a domestic level. Why would it not be seen in the same light internationally ?

✅ fixed windshield leak with poliurethane glue. It was messy as fuck. 6/10 result. I'll have to clean up later. Damn that was so much challenging than it had to be cause I made the hole for the glue to come out too small. I was legit suffering because of how much force i had to apply to the glue pistol. ✅ unscrewed and varnished the wooden ceiling panels. Ideally I'd varnish it twice but I'd have to purchase another can. I guess it is important so just go and buy it. ✅ screwed in and " Fixed " The rear view mirror.

Stars of Clay Episode Two: The Girl Who Ran to the Moon Intro theme music: Amy studied the backs of her hands, from the pointed tips of her turquoise colored nails, to the faint little wrinkles above the wrists. There was something she was missing… something more important than anything else right now, if only she could remember… "You get it all?" Sandra asked, scowling. "I swear, if I get my hands on those little cretins." Oh. Right. Amy was checking her hands for ketchup splatter after two small kids, a boy and girl playing an enthusiastic game of cops and robbers, tore through aisle eight where she was stocking. It was cute at first (the girl had crimson hair like Amy's, so maybe she held a soft spot) until the taller, lankier boy fired a finger pistol at his friend's heart; she clutched her chest and fell back into the ketchup shelf in a slow, painfully dramatic demise. Five bottles hit the tiled floor and shattered, spraying half the condiment aisle--and Amy-- in dark, oozing tomato blood. Her new CloudWalk shoes were saved at least; a huge relief since they were as white as the name suggests, and remarkably overpriced for its promise. Sandra, her manager, had brought paper towels and offered to "help mop," which really meant standing near the mop to gossip about Bryan in pharmacy. Amy was used to it, she'd been at this job long enough to know there was really no one to extend a hand. It wasn't long before Amy was called up to work a register, and even less time before some cranky old lady was arguing over the price of bananas. To most, this would seem a very bad day at work; Amy just called it Monday night. She bit her tongue and explained, as smiley-faced as she could muster, that the store charges for each banana, not by the pound like in the dinosaur days, and that each banana would cost a dollar-four. "So if you're planning to buy three bananas, Mrs. Larkin, it's going to cost you three dollars and some change. Your total is right here on the screen, but if you'd like I can find a calculator--" "--Well in my day the customer was always right! Then you post-millennials got all 'woken' and now there's drone cameras everywhere spying on us shoppers, and 'employee rights'" - air quotes were applied to that last bit, performed by long knobby fingers trembling with years of abuse- "and now here I am being asked to pay over a dollar per banana. Per! Instead of by the pound as it should be!" "Mrs. Larkin..." "You know, I remember when water was free! Yeah, you could just step right up to the tap, and there ya have it. I want to speak to your manager!" "Well, I don't think the water was ever really free was it?" Amy couldn't help herself; besides the ketchup explosion earlier and Sandra's meltdown in the deep freeze, it was a rather slow night. "I mean, maybe it was really cheap, but you got a water bill, no?" "Your manager!" "Sure, let me get her for you." Amy suddenly remembered her customer-service smile, and quietly promised to stop being so cheeky. "But just so you know, I left her mopping up a huge mess, which usually doesn't leave her in a great mood... but if you really want me to... I'm sure she can come up and use her big fancy manager calculator." She cringed immediately and looked away, that was too far... But there was no reply, and when Amy looked back the old lady stood motionless, her head hanging low, an outstretched hand in midst of the particularly rude gesture of a bird. A long wheezing moan passed through her thin pursed lips, sputtering off to a dead silence. "Uh, ma'am?" Amy scanned the checkout center for help, but no one was paying attention besides the tall guy next in line. Kind of cute, thought Amy, if he weren't staring like a creep. Cute in like a nerdy movie star kind of way, she amended upon further study. She didn't typically go for brunettes but there was something magnetic about his eyes, green with burst of hazel around the pupils. When he noticed her staring back, the young man smiled and said, "You've already forgotten about the old lady, haven't you?" With a gasp, she snapped back to Mrs. Larkin, who still stood frozen by the paypad. Amy felt frozen too, except to reach out and touch the lady's shoulder. It felt soft and warm, like when she last hugged her grandmother. "Hey, are you OK?" she asked, and looked around again. Why won't anyone help? "Wow," the cute guy said, "you really broke one properly this time, huh?" Amy wheeled. "Are you just going to stand there?" she burst, panicking. "Get help! Call someone!" Suddenly, manager Sandra ran up from the back of the store, heaving. "You paged?" she asked between wheezes, "what's wrong?" "No, she didn't," said the tall guy. "What?" Amy and Sandra retorted in unison. This weirdo was looking less cute by the minute... "If you'll remember, Amy," he said, and stepped over to Mrs Larkin, then gently lowered her middle finger. "You never called for the manager. This lady asked you to, and you never did. And then, this happened." He bent down and opened one of the old woman's sagging eyelids. Satisfied, he stood and turned to Sandra. "No, she never called you, you're a diversion to get us back on track. On script. And if that doesn't work, they'll show up soon." "Look here, my dude," snorted Sandra, "I have no idea what you're on about, but if you have any idea the kind of night I've had, you'd shut your mouth and let the adults do the talking, mmmkay?" "Yes ma'am," he replied with a snappy salute. "but only if Amy here can tell me where she works." Looking to Amy his hand lowered, "and don't just say you work 'here.' What is the name of this store?" "Are you crazy? There is an elderly person here having a real medical emergency--will someone PLEASE call 911!" "You call them." He shrugged. "Don't you have a phone on you? What century are we in?" "Well I - Yeah, I'm sure I have one... around here..." Amy patted her pockets and searched around the register. "Where do you work?" he insisted. "I'm not stupid, I know where I work! It's-- it's uh... well, here. I work here. " "What's it called?" "It's called... Um, hmmm, hang on..." "Why do you have ketchup all over you, Amy?" "Well," she replied, looking down. The sour stench of vinegar and tomato wafted up from her splattered shirt. "Yeah, there was a thing earlier and... and Sandra said I couldn't go change because they might need me up on a register." She looked to her manager, who nodded with reassurance. "I mean, I think, right? I was mopping all that up and then... I got called up to a register." "You sure?" Leaving Mrs Larkin, the tall guy stepped to the far end of the checkout counter, eying the nearest exit. "Or, did you just find yourself here, arguing with that delightful young lady about the price of bananas?" "You're right... ," said Amy, slowly piecing it together, "No, I never called for the manager..." Shoving past Mrs. Larkin, Sandra stepped up to the register and grabbed Amy's hand, patting it softly. "Don't listen to him Amy, everything will be just fine. You can go home and change your clothes right after I kick that trouble maker's skinny little--aaaahhhh!--" The shrieking that ended Sandra's sentence was short winded, as the old woman sprung to life and sunk her teeth deep into the manager's veiny neck. No, not teeth-- they didn't look like teeth at all to Amy, they just looked... wrong. Too long and shiny, like rows of little golden daggers. Amy stood shocked, as tiny bits of Sandra were caught in Mrs. Larkin's deepest wrinkles; the old woman relished her meal with closed eyes--wait no, she had no eyes! Two black holes were all that filled Mrs. Larkin's sockets, darker than the loneliest voids of space between dying stars. Amy fell back into the shelves behind the register and knocked over a bottle of red shampoo, dousing her CloudWalks in thick bloody soap, completing the ensemble. "Amy, we need to go," the tall guy said, "right now. Please, I need you to leave your register and let's walk away. Carefully." "I -- I can't..." she replied shakily, unable to take her eyes off of Sandra. "Mrs. Larkin is a vampire?" "Something like that," he said, reaching out, "and yes you can. You can leave here if you want. But you have to want it, and quick before Mrs. Larkin is finished with her meal. Who do you think will be next?" The old woman released her golden daggers from Sandra's neck; then as if her lower jaw became unhinged, Mrs Larkin's mouth opened wide enough to swallow Amy's manager whole, head first. Her crooked body seemed to stretch and grow just tall enough to do it, and picked up a limp Sandra with very little effort. Before long she was sliding the feet down with a wet slurp. "Don't just stand there Amy, come on!" Like breaking from a nasty spell, Amy turned to him and, shaking her head, "I'm dreaming..." "Took you long enough, now let's go!" His hand stretched further, wriggling anxiously for her to take it. "Yeah," she agreed, and their fingers met with tingling excitement. Off they went and he led her past the other checkout counters and to the big exit doors at the front of the store. A large man with no eyes stepped on their path reaching out with long stretching fingers; Amy's new friend dodged expertly and rolled her around to his other side. "Don't let them touch you!" he shouted, and picked up an umbrella to beat off a persistent eyeless baby crawling around their feet with tiny gnashing golden daggers. "Geez Amy, are all the demon babies this quick in your dreams?" "I wouldn't know!" she replied, "so that's what these things are? Demons? These dream characters with no eyes?" "Something... like... that!" he managed through strong forward thrusts. "And you... can call me... CLAY!" With the last word the tall guy swung the umbrella low and putted the baby high in the air and deep into the store; they ran harder. "You know, that way you can stop referring to me as 'he' or 'the cute tall guy!" "You're reading my thoughts?" Amy yelled back, tearing her hand free but keeping pace. "I didn't know dream characters can do that! Are you like some special kind?" Clay didn't answer, just gave her one long look as they neared the exit. A calm night peeked through the glass doors and Amy could just see her car out in the parking lot. "They're not opening!" He waved the umbrella at the doors' sensors. "Ok we're going through..." "Through?" Amy slowed, wheeling in thought, "oh, I'm not good at going through things... especially in a hurry..." "It's easy, just don't overthink it. Like how we have so much time to discuss all this even though we've been approching the doors for quite a while. It's a dream Amy, there are no doors, not really!" "Ooooh, I don't know!" She winced. "There's got to be another way out..." "Listen, doors aren't important, we just need to get to the other side, the parking lot. Just close your eyes and think about the parking lot!" She did and, after a short woosh, when her eyes opened they were now running outside and across the dark, near empty lot. Her car seemed a lot further than she remembered parking, but her mind was on what just happened. Did I go through the doors, she pondered, noticing the big cheese-yellow moon hanging over them as they scurried like mice away from the store. Or did I teleport? I totally teleported, didn't I? "Something like that," Clay said, and she promptly ordered him to stay out of her head. "Really?" He replied. She could've felt his smirk from eons away. "I'm not even reading your thoughts, Amy, you do well enough alone to broadcast them out like a free concert! You know, in a dream, your thoughts still feel like they're in your head, but where is your head, Amy?" "All around?" "Something like that." Amy thought about what horrific things she might do to him if he used that phrase again; Clay requested she'd not go with shooting fireballs at him since he took so long choosing his outfit. "STOP IT!!" "I will when you will!" He shouted, and ducked as an expertly crafted iceball whizzed by, grazing an ear. "Oh good job, you've been practicing, huh?" Amy didn't know what he meant by that, and didn't have time to explain where she learned the trick because two eyeless demons climbed out of a nearby vehicle and took chase with considerable speed. Amy threw large iceballs at them but any that would've hit were swallowed whole. "Hey, you still know how to fly?" Clay shouted from further ahead. "Yeah I can fly! Uh, but I have to jump off of somewhere high..." "Oh you're still on that? Ok, come here." He flipped the umbrella down and pointed the long guilded tip at her shoes. "CloudWalkers, huh? That'll work." And with a quick incantation ("Hocus pocus... wibbly wobbly...abra kadabra!") golden sparks leapt from his makeshift wand and disappeared into Amy's shoes, now restored to a pristine white. The umbrella then opened high above his head and he lifted up and away into the night sky. "Now just walk right up to me, Amy! Actually, RUN!" With a narrow escape of gnashing dagger-teeth and long stretching arms, she ran vertically right up to Clay who was already high above the power lines. Each step created a literal cloud to cushion her climb, accompanied by a cute little 'poof'; luckily the eyeless demons couldn't fly. When she caught up to him she asked again about the creatures chasing them. "They're kind of like an immune system response," he said while they hovered well above the parking lot (Amy could see part of the town twinkling further down.) "Okay, or say that a dream is like a supermassive simulation with an aggressive autocorrect function. Those are the autocorrect. Correctors, I call them." "When things go wrong," Amy added, "or off script like you said earlier..." "Yeah, the correctors are the number one reason you don't get lucid more often. They show up lots of times when you start noticing things are unusual, but especially if someone tries to tell you that you're dreaming. They get real nasty then. And it's not hard to keep you on track, they just swallow the evidence, literally." "Well I don't remember seeing any dream characters like that before! It's certainly not something to forget..." "Of course not. When they destroy the evidence it's like it never happened, including their sudden appearance. You just go on with the dream, maybe under new circumstances that you believe were always there. The mind adapts. And when all else fails, they'll just eat you. Then you wake up and poof-- it's like it's never happened." "So that's why I don't remember so many of my dreams?" A topic heavy on Amy's mind as of late. "Something like-- "Don't even!" "Sometimes." He said instead, and began to lift higher and higher to the pull of his umbrella; Amy thought he looked more like Mary Poppins now than a handsome movie star (well I guess he could be both...) "And sometimes you just have really awful memory," he added, and dodged a whizzing fireball or two. He swung the umbrella far away to avoid losing his fabric vehicle to Amy's fiery retaliation-- "Hey I'm flying here!" "Fly away then, you're no help!" But before she could spray him with a barrage of fire and ice, a helicopter zoomed up from the parking lot and three more correctors leapt out, diving straight for the quarreling duo. "Follow me!" yelled Clay "to my ship, quick! Straight to the moon!" "Your ship in on the moon? But it's so far!" "Something like that..." he muttered. Holding his free hand up to the moon, he pinched his fingers together, then pulled them apart like zooming in on a virtual tablet. The moon stretched and grew from the size of a watermelon to taking up the whole of Amy's view. When awake, she had seen close ups of the moon but never knew the rocky craters to have such an iridescent shimmer. "And my ship's not on the moon..." he corrected, "it is the moon." One of the large craters opened up like from a cheesy old sci-fi movie, and Amy marveled that she'd even dream up such a thing. It seemed totally out of the norm of her usual dream-fare, to have some irritably handsome mind reader whisk her away to the moon. Maybe it was the special tea she had last night at Evelyn's party....(I was at a party last night, right?) Or perhaps from binging too much Professor Zero on DisFlix. She CloudWalked (or rather, cloud-ran,) right inside the crater behind Clay, and after a short swirling vortex of a tunnel, found herself stepping into the dark cockpit of a futuristic looking spaceship; her shoes no longer created little clouds on the metallic floor. A lanky sillhouete of Clay shifted across the small cabin to the pilot's seat on the left, partially illuminated by the glow from a multitude of prismatic buttons and switches comprising a ridiculously large dashboard. A giant screen towered above, displaying a moon-sized Earth on a dark and silent night. "Take a seat," Clay said, patting the other one on the right. "It won't bite. It will give you ten kinds of temporal massages and a total chakra cleansing--that is, if I can remember where the buttons are..." He scanned through what seemed like thousands of flashing buttons above the empty seat alone, and promptly gave up. "Come on, we're safe in here. The correctors can't get inside. Come on, take a seat... " "Fine," Amy said with a firm resolve. "But only if you start being honest with me. No more 'something like that' crap, just... tell me the truth, even if you don't think I'd understand." "The truth? Sorry Amy, but I'm not here to tell you the truth. I don't even know if half the things I could say are true. What I can tell you is that we can have fun, if you want." He patted the seat again. For the first time, she saw him. Sure, she had looked at Clay plenty of times by now, but it suddenly made sense who this was, yet impossible to put together into a single cohesive thought. Amy was flooded by memories of dreams she had as a small child. In them, there was always a special friend who bailed her out of trouble, or helped her to understand things as a scared little girl, or took her to amazing new places beyond her wildest dreams. When awake, she even had an imaginary friend based on this character, but didn't remember it being male, or of any gender, really. Eventually she had stopped talking to this friend and slowly forgot about them as interests turned to boys and clothes, or the worse, adulting. No, this was not just some random dream character, this was her most secret and adventurous childhood friend, back again after all this time... "Hey." (To be continued in episode three...) Outro: (Artwork by Shaun Power from MindVenture club)

First of all, I am sorry that you have to go trough all this. An adverse event caused by any medical intervention just sucks, especially if the direct benefit of such internvetion is propably miniscule in young patients. You have to realize that you are an outlier in this case, since close to 100% of vacc-recipients do not encounter any long term side effects after getting the jab. How would I know? Well, I have personally vaccinated myriads of patients in the last year, none of which reported any crazy adverse events besides the usual stuff (pain, fever, headaches..). The hospital I work at is also one of the main centres who work with long covid/vaccine-injury patients. We just dont see our clinic getting overrun by vaccinated zombies. The only unit that struggles is our critical care unit because of the 90% unvaccinated patients that rely on intensive medical procedures to survive. This goes hand in hand with the available data and is consistent with the anecdotal evidence of first line heatlh workers around the globe. Every medical intervention is at its core a risk/benefit calculation. Any intervention that is enforced on a global level will reveal even the slightest signal. So far, we have adminstered more than 8 billion doses of the vaccine - so any side effect that can happen will happen. Neither Leo, nor your body or your favorite vaccination-conspiracy can tell how you are gointo react to it beforehand. Its basically Schrödingers-vaccination where the subject survives 99,999% of the time. The same goes for the covid-19 disease. You could be a healthy, 20 year old with zero medical conditions and the virus could still fuck up your lungs irreversibly. Its rare, but it happens and I have seen it happening. I have witnessed a healthy 29 year old dying from Covid - unvaccinated. See, there is no certainty in anything - especially when it comes to complex and chaotic systems. Our minds of course, try to to cling onto every piece of illusory certainty there is - and thats where all the anti-vaxx nonsense comes in. All we have is propability and the informed decisions we could base on that proxy. Myocarditis/Pericarditis is a well known side effect of the mRNA-Vaccines and depending on what statistic you look like, its incidence is about 1 in 10.000-20.000 (with Moderna). Pfizer comes with a significantly lower chance of developing such events. The reason behind that is propably the lower dose of actual mRNA in the drug. Each shot of Pfizer contains 30 micrograms of mRNA, while each one of Moderna contains 100. Moderna comes with a slightly better outcome regarding hospitalization and death. I would not recommend any person below the age of 30 to get the Moderna shot. The risk/reward equation is tilted into the wrong direction in my opinion. If you are below 30, have comorbidities or risk factors and the Moderna shot is the only one available - take it. Otherwise, everyone between 15 & 30 should get Pfizer and thats propably better than not getting it at all. Everyone above 30 should get any shot available + boosters, regardless of comorbidities or risk factors. I do not necessarily recommend the vaccination below the age of 15. There is a new preprint regarding Covid-risk in children, which is pretty clear on that issue IMO: 38669115 (medrxiv.org) Its not true that Sweden banned mRNA-Vaccines in general, they stopped vaccinating the young (<30) with Moderna and thats a completely rational decision (as mentioned above). Pfizer (which is a mRNA vacc. as well) is still the go-to option for everyone. As you can see, there are systems in place that look at global events regarding vaccination and their adverse effects. We saw the smoking pistol in the vector-based agents (Astrazeneca, J&J..) with the thrombogenic effects and we did see it again with in Moderna. Suppressing such data on a worldwide scale is impossible. Regarding your pericarditis: Most cases will heal out without any lasting damage to your heart. I dont know your specific condition but you should definitely talk to a local cardiologist about that. I cant raelly help you with the prognosis because I would need to take a look at your test-results. Is there scar tissue in the pericard? Is there a reduced ventricular output etc. There are alternative methods of dealing with this issue but I would wait and trust your local healthcare provider for now. Thats the only rational thing you can do at the moment. As I mentioned, most cases go back to normal, it just takes time. Any premature alternative treatment over the internet is highly amoral and could make matters worse. PS: The Pfizer vaccine seems to come with a high tolerability, even in elite athletes. 2 days ago, The Lancet published a decent paper about this issue: Tolerability and impact of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in elite athletes - The Lancet Respiratory Medicine

Yeah that's the furthest thing from normal, go to a shooting range if you still want to have fun with rifles, or use an old one-shot rifle for hunting, or a pistol for self defence, but for some reason they just need to have an AK-47 collection in their homes? No one had rocket launches when declaring the right to bear arms was a human right, are we going to stick to this idea with zero nuance when we have futuristic lazar guns in 40 years? America sure is weird.

Honestly why are Assault rifles and shotguns still readily available in America? I’ve heard you can walk into a bloody Walmart and buy a shotgun with no licence at all. I get having a small pistol for protection if you have a licence and have been checked to have no serious mental health issues, but seriously this is a joke. America is fucked if they don’t sort this out.

Joseph Rosenbaum, his background includes a conviction for sexual conduct with a minor in Arizona in 2002. Anthony Huber, served a pair of prison stints stemming from family conflict, including choking his brother in 2012. Gaige Grosskreutz, armed with a pistol and had it in his hand when he approached Rittenhouse, who shot him in the arm.

I was starting to think Leo was totally infallible and had no bad opinions lol. Kinda nice in a way to see that even enlightened people have blind spots and biases. Would you blame BLM protestors for needlessly going out looking for conflict? If we wanna go with the "he shouldn't have been there" argument then it applies equally to the protestors, rioters, and looters. Especially the dude who ran toward Rittenhouse with a pistol in his hand and got his arm blown off as a result when he could have ran the other way. Rittenhouse only shot people who continued pursuing him as he was retreating... one hitting him with a skateboard, another wielding a firearm of their own.

"One rioter that knocked Kyle Rittenhouse to the ground, another smashed him in the head with a skateboard, and a third rioter drew a loaded pistol, which he was not allowed to have, unlike Kyle Rittenhouse and pointed it in Kyle Rittenhouse’s face." @Rilles — you're mentioning only Rittenhouse here, not the 3rd rioter that had a loaded pistol. You seem bias towards a kid that all he wanted to do is to defend his community. *We must not pick sides or condemn anyone; we must find out the absolute truth.

I definitely agree here. Combat was significantly improved with pistol silencer mechanic imo. I played it on hard. The ammo was scarce enough for me to focus on headshots but spare enough so that I could get into combat in each encounter. I loved grabbing someone, shooting the last person with a headshot and then executing him. As to story telling, I always say that originality is never quite the issue. It is how the narrative is structured and characters are developed throughout the experience. I think LoU 2 aces that most important part. Even the most cliche of stories can be turned into masterpieces with the right execution. But of course the best mix would be originality + execution What sort of stories do you create?

Love this video, a lot of great stuff about the false god of materialism.