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Authors note- this is the last part. Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it. ————————

The “Elder Conclave”, as it turned out, was a loose affiliation of several civilizations with very little in common save for the obvious: their individual life spans were far beyond the average of life in the galaxy. Like humans, they lived years, decades, even more than a century in some cases.

The Izthix. The Dermisj. The Hallowed Empire. The Rasavali. The Eighth Founding of Katon. The Jo’so’kiir.

It was a short list, but the accompanying star charts include systems we’d theorized as possibly containing a habitable zone, but were far enough away to have been unexplored. Having confirmation of sentient peoples among them moved them to the new top priority list, and the JSC once again was frothing at the mouth to send expeditions. Unfortunately, something held us back, however temporarily.

The Emissary, whose name was unpronounceable without technological assistance, had informed us that humanity had advanced enough to be included among the longer lived species, but what that meant had been more vague. At first we, of course, assumed technological advancement, but that was only part of it. The second part was meeting and interacting with the more populous shorter lived civilizations. Finding the clues to the earlier contact among their records, sent out people to find the Elder Conclave, who, we realized, had been watching us just like the Mikey’s had been, albeit more surreptitiously.

The key, it seemed, was our relationships with the shorter lived species, a subject of immediate scrutiny when came the announcement of recession.

“Within the near future, it will become necessary for your species to withdraw from occupied territories, and cease regular contact with the shorter lived civilizations.”

This was it, we were sure, the hammer on the anvil, the threat that we would not be allowed to expand beyond our borders, that the galaxy was theirs, not ours.

The assembled ambassadors and diplomats shouted and called down from their seats, protesting such constraints. Trade, alliances, cultural exchange would all be demolished by such an act.

The Emissary raised their tendril limbs, a human gesture they had picked up, beseeching pacification for a moment.

“Please, friends, know this is not a requirement, no issue with the Conc

Shaq's rookie season ('92-'93) he averaged 23 and 13. He then spent literally a decade averaging at least 26 points and at least 10 rebounds a year, with many years much better.

He instantly dominated the league, lead Orlando to the finals, and maintained his dominance into the Shaqobe years, which most people on the forum seem to remember him from.

Shaq's 14th year in the league was the last year he averaged at least 20 points and 9 rebounds. He did so with the same efficiency he was known for his entire career.

Taken together those first 14 years of his career in which he consistently averaged 20/9 or better and for a large span averaged 26/11 or better, all on absurdly efficient shooting.

Michael Jordan had 15 seasons in his entire career. Magic Johnson had 13 seasons in his entire career. Larry Bird had 13 seasons in his entire career. Wilt played 15 seasons his entire year.

Shaq fell quite a bit from his peak at the tail end of his career and was a total shell of himself after his Miami days. But the idea that his career was one short peak is totally mistaken. Shaq had nearly a decade and a half of all-star caliber play and was a dominant force the second he entered the league.

I think the problem is people saw that he played with Kobe, and watched as his body fell apart and Kobe kept playing for the Lakers and winning championships. I don't think people realize Shaq entered the league and became productive several years before Kobe, and it makes sense he would fall off sooner.

doi: 10.1016/j.maturitas.2013.09.014. Epub 2013 Oct 25.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24210636

Longevity and diet. Myth or pragmatism? Chrysohoou C1, Stefanadis C. Author information Abstract Longevity is a very complex phenomenon, because many environmental, behavioral, socio-demographic and dietary factors influence the physiological pathways of aging and life-expectancy. Nutrition has been recognized to have an important impact on overall mortality and morbidity; and its role in extending life expectancy has been the object of extensive scientific research. This paper reviews the pathophysiological mechanisms that potentially link aging with diet and the scientific evidence supporting the anti-aging effect of the traditional Mediterranean diet, as well as of some specific foods. The diet and several of its components have additionally been shown to have beneficial effects on the co-morbidities typical of elderly populations. Furthermore, the epigenetic effects of diet on the aging process - through calorie restriction and the consumption of foods like red wine, orange juice, probiotics and prebiotics - have attracted scientific interest. Some, such as dark chocolate, red wine, nuts, beans, avocados are being promoted as anti-aging foods, due to their anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory properties. Finally, an important moderator in the relationship between diet, longevity and human health remains the socio-economic status of individual, as a healthy diet, due to its higher cost, is closely related to higher financial and educational status.

There's a lot of facts and misnomers I see going around. People swear by stuff others claim it useless.

Letting a battery drain before recharging...

Topping off good/bad

Keeping a battery cold when not in use

Fast charging vs slow charging

And so on...

What is the science behind the claims?

Regnal lists of the Sumerians, Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, Vietnamese, Persians, etc. all have preposterous claims to ages 100+ when you get really far back.

How do historians approach such claims? Are the ages wrong but the people existed? Or are the ages wrong AND the people never existed?

Like, how do scholars view Emperor Jimmu?

I think a lot of what people like Elizondo, Nolan, and Loeb have been alluding to recently describes the control system Jacques Vallée writes about in The Invisible College. This is speculative analysis and I of course may be way off base, but this is my interpretation of what's being put out there by lately by big names involved in UFO research.

These are a few excerpts from the book explaining the control system.

>I propose the hypothesis that there is a control system for human consciousness. I have not determined whether it is natural or spontaneous; whether it is explainable in terms of genetics, of social psychology, or of ordinary phenomena—or if it is artificial in nature, and under the power of some superhuman will. It may be entirely determined by laws that we have not yet discovered.

>A civilization such as ours, which is entirely oriented toward what it regards as technical progress, cannot afford long to ignore the apparition in the sky of objects that defy the laws of its physics and the performance of its rocket planes. Within a few years the advanced countries will place on this problem, openly or in secret, their best physicists, their best intelligence specialists, their best computer scientists. But they may be powerless to utilize their expertise, because the phenomenon fits none of these categories. If this is so, then UFOs can never be analyzed or conceived, because they are the means through which man’s concepts are being rearranged. All we can do is to trace their effects on humans.

>We have seen that the control system operates like a thermostat. It progresses by oscillations, drawing from the antagonism of fire and ice, warm and cold, evil and good, all myths for the feeble minds of men, equally bound by higher laws. For hot and cold are only relative to a mean, two appearances of a single fact, the motion of molecules. Few people have grasped both the physics and the beauty of it.

>What is the variable being controlled in this control system? Thermostats control temperature; gyroscopes control the direction in which a rocket flies. What could a paranormal phenomenon control? I suggest that it is human belief that is being controlled and conditioned.

In this tweet reply, Stanford geneticist Garry Nolan suggests human civilization has been influenced in the past by the phenomenon, simply by showing themselves in certain ways (i.e. UFOs).

>Think

Premise

Lifespan in the real world has always intrigued me. From he thought of a fly living for a mere 24 hours (so the false myth says), to the tragedy of King Tut dying before he got to live his life, to the classic fictional trope of the villain that will do anything for that sweet ambrosia brewing in the Fountain of Youth. After all, the most difficult part of ruling the world forever is the "forever" part. Which brings me to today's article where /u/Mimir-ion and I will touch on some concepts we find interesting, and give some practical examples of how to fill out your world.

The D&D Spread

While there is quite a large range of life expectancies for the (standard) D&D races, the lowest being halflings at 50* and the highest being elves at a whopping 750 years, I'm mostly going to be juxtaposing the extremes, Elves vs Humans, three-quarter-millennium and just under one century. I will touch on other races as needed, but I think that the extremes get my point across most effectively. Here is a graph of the top 10 chosen races in D&D for a visualization.

*As /u/ThatGuy9833 pointed out, I misread the halfling age. The humans are the youngest of the standard races in that case.

The Perspective of a Lifetime

Dour subject incoming. Why is it sad when a kid dies versus when a senior does? Well, for a lot of reasons, but the difference I want to focus on is a kid had so much life left to live. Let's say they only lived 10% of their life. Transposing that to an elf, they'd be a whopping 75 years old; around the average age of a human. An elf "child" and human senior die at the same time! )We'll build on this later.)

Generally speaking, it's quite difficult to concern yourself with something that doesn't, and will never, affect you. We are seeing this now in the real world with the (totally 100% non-controversial) example of climate change. For an elf, climate change will be something they can see progress and get worse as they live on, and an issue that will cause some drastic consequences in their lifetime if not nipped in the bud.

Technology and Education

I’ll let my co-author, Mim, speak to this portion, as his more educated tongue speaks better to this than mine can.

Education is a long term investment in the future, the knowledge imparted on the individual leads (hopefully) to more intelligent/informed choices to be made, which improves not only their survival, but also that of t

Secret societies of human psychics called greys and invading aliens, aka what happens when the Shil'vati recruit the grain of truth behind the human myths of vampires and sorcerers.

First Previous

Part forty-five: Paradox's, The monkey king, Hope and a plasma cannon

Nuria was walking with the commandant over what the locals called the sea bridge.

Honestly it was simply a holo-screen wall made to project and image of the seas outside as if seen through a window looking out of the cliff face, a cliff face that in reality was half a mile above them and a mile and a half distant.

“What’s troubling you Nuria.” Asked the commandant.

Nuria Tansa captain of the Temperance was visibly mulling over something, she had been since she left the chief engineer Saerahd’s office.

“It’s what she said, the Grey have no patience for failure or deception…. but they have lived in secret surviving via deception and guile for generations.” Remarked Nuria.

Commandant Tashanne nodded thoughtfully.

“I had a similar such notion prior to coming here and talking extensively to major Vrey about these people, not this tribe in particular but the people as a whole the species if you will because that is what they are…. a quasi-separate humanoid race, like comparing the common Turox to the homeworld’s Turagor.”

She said mentioning a relative to the commonly domesticated Turox that was larger far more aggressive and leaner but also extinct outside of captivity.

“To quote the major lying to someone’s face is unacceptable, bear in mind someone in this context means another grey or just another psychic, everyone else is fair game and they fully expect us to lie to them and only demand that other psychics obey or at least respect their code of internal honour, even lying through a telepathically controlled proxy is completely acceptable to them which of course also applies to things like letters and text messages too,” she remarked as Nuria sat beside her.

“Which is also why they prefer to deal face to face to them it’s a way of showing honesty and integrity, phone calls and video calls can allow a long-range psychic link so they are as good as face to face, but any form of recording however that is just the same as a letter or text message and lying is allowed.”

Nuria nodded, that made a lot of sen

I don't want to step on anybody's toes here, but the amount of non-dad jokes here in this subreddit really annoys me. First of all, dad jokes CAN be NSFW, it clearly says so in the sub rules. Secondly, it doesn't automatically make it a dad joke if it's from a conversation between you and your child. Most importantly, the jokes that your CHILDREN tell YOU are not dad jokes. The point of a dad joke is that it's so cheesy only a dad who's trying to be funny would make such a joke. That's it. They are stupid plays on words, lame puns and so on. There has to be a clever pun or wordplay for it to be considered a dad joke.

Again, to all the fellow dads, I apologise if I'm sounding too harsh. But I just needed to get it off my chest.

I keep popping up in exercise threads to say "lift heavy!". I need to explain why.

Background

I'm 50 and I suffered symptoms my whole adult life, but was diagnosed only after a big flare at 36. I have minor changes to one SI joint. I'm not yet on biologics and my rheum is so far always surprised and delighted. (When I need biologics, I'll take them immediately. Nothing below is better than the drugs.)

I'm convinced that contrary to some (maybe dated) clinical advice, lifting heavy weights since I was 16 has kept me basically fully mobile and unfused. I think some of the reasons for that are not immediately obvious.

Disclaimer

This is part obvious and proven, but part theory and intuition. I have two Master's degrees and neither is in healthcare, though I am a qualified strength and conditioning coach.

Lifting doesn't replace physiotherapy exercise.

What is "heavy"?

Not your resistance bands. Not your home dumbbells.

Okay this isn't heavy in strength sport terms, at all, but heavy compared to the homeopathic recommendations often given to people with A.S You know, the can-of-soup curls people.

For our purposes here I'm talking about barbell lifts such as squatting 1.5x bodyweight, deadlifting 2x bodyweight, strict overhead pressing half bodyweight, bench pressing (if you must) bodyweight. All for repeated repetitions. Or the heavy dumbell equivalents. Machines are harder to judge; leverage and friction makes it impossible to know what you're really lifting.

I lift more than that by a margin, but I have 30 years+ under a barbell. Those numbers are enough to get many of the benefits I think.

The obvious 1 - range of motion

We no longer get torso plastered for 12 weeks so that "at least we'll fuse upright". Yes, that really was a thing. Your physio will already give exercises to use and maintain range of motion. Use it or lose it - we get it.

Obviously carrying out all the big human movements for full range of motion and under load, 2 to 4 times a week, maintains range of motion. It's why we usually, in each programme, do a vertical push and pull, horizontal push and pull, a squat and a hinge at the hips (like a deadlift). That's all the big human movements, right there.

The obvious 2 - joint stability

Weak muscles around joints and slack connective tissue leads to joint pains and sprains. Especially if you fall while doing usual life tasks. Pains and sprains cause swelling and immobility. With A.S periods of immob

A summary of the science behind what actions we can take that can either maximise or minimise our ability to grow taller. Hopefully this gives our community more context than simply "eat well and sleep more".

• These are the things I'd be doing (and not doing) if my growth plates hadn't already closed.*
• Excellent summary videos that help explain this information at the bottom of the page (studies included).

Minimise Oestrogen (The big one)

• Oestrogen is the hormone that closes growth plates. The spiking of oestrogen levels in the body is what fuses growth plates during puberty. It also partly explains why women have a shorter growth period during puberty than men.
• In men, oestrogen is primarily created by it being aromatised (converted) from testosterone via the aromatase enzyme. Therefore, higher testosterone = higher oestrogen naturally.
• Anabolic steroids stunt growth because this massively increased testosterone means a huge increase in oestrogen also, leading to faster closing of growth plates. So YES, being shorter is debatably more masculine, as more testosterone is likely to make you shorter, not taller.
• Teenagers who have been castrated or have any genetic defect that leads to low testosterone or low oestrogen often grow to be very tall, lanky and with large wingspans (see first video below for more).
• Body fat has a significant amount of aromatase enzyme, and so higher body fat levels often corresponds to higher oestrogen levels. Takeaway? Don't be overweight during puberty and ideally get lean.
• Caloric deficits (dieting) aren't ideal though as that would work against the following points...

Maximise mTOR

• mTOR is your body's primary signalling for entering a state of anabolism i.e. growth.
• mTOR signalling also ages you faster, this explains why minimising it through caloric restriction, fasting and lower protein intake is a good thing for longevity. If you want muscle and height, do the opposite, stimulate mTOR (but don't get fat).
• Protein is the primary molecule that turns on mTOR, consume as much as possible around the clock.
• Contrary to popular belief, protein spikes insulin as much as carbohydrate, so insulin and IGF-1 will be circulating this way, stimulating mTOR through these additional pathways.
• Don't eat in a caloric deficit, but also avoid fat gain (minimising oestrogen).

Maximise hGH and IGF-1

• Everyone talks about hGH and understands its significant role in height growth, but

The nurse asked the rabbit, “what is your blood type?”

“I am probably a type O” said the rabbit.

The doctor says it terminal.

One of the minor characters whose influence sent ripples is Dr. Bogdan Ivanovich Krilov, the memory expert who treated Liz as a child, in a misguided effort to help her deal with the trauma of the night of the fire.

We know that Liz believed as a child that she had killed her father, is the reason she is sent to Krilov.

>When you were a child, to protect you from the memory of killing your father.

Does not mean that it was the truth, only that Liz believed it to be true.

But the most important aspect of the involvement of Dr. Krilov is not what he did in the early 1990s, but in his being used by Kate much later on.

In 4.19 (2017), when Red is chasing Kate all over, he becomes aware that Kate met with Dr. Krilov in Vienna, and thus, gives the case to the task force.

https://preview.redd.it/uy52d9i5cp781.png?width=979&format=png&auto=webp&s=102606510c18715c51971f8296bc228ce2d9b387

Kate's plan was brilliant. She was obviously aware that Ressler had animosity towards Hitchins, rightly convinced that she had killed Reven Wright. So, she hired Krilov to create memories of an event that did not exist:

An actor played the role of a witness to the Wright murder, leading to an attack, then a false memory of a conversation with Hitchins in which she basically accepted she had killed Wright, and said she was going to dispose of the "witness", and Ressler was left at the gates of her house, with a weapon. Ressler then proceeded to shoot her security detail, and would have killed her, had Liz and Samar not arrived in time.

https://preview.redd.it/klwo54y7cp781.png?width=1916&format=png&auto=webp&s=07589b179736cc623563e2758c4ac6bbee96d48f

With it, Kate would have accomplished two things: disable Ressler, who would have been then killed Hitchins in cold blood, plus shot her security detail, and dispose of Hitchins who in fact protected Red and the task force, and served as Red's entry to the cabal, thus weakening him. Or Ressler would have been killed in the attempt as well.

Hitchins surviving this is what allows Red to use her to disable the investigation into the 86 bodies.

>Raymond. Clever use of Laurel Hitchin to commandeer the grand jury.

This is important, for it illustrates one of the earliest themes of the show: people as weapons. Consider how Berlin had been turned into a weapon against Reddington, by turning the fake death of his daughter, instigated and facilitated by The Decembrist (Alan Fi

Alot of great jokes get posted here! However just because you have a joke, doesn't mean it's a dad joke.

THIS IS NOT ABOUT NSFW, THIS IS ABOUT LONG JOKES, BLONDE JOKES, SEXUAL JOKES, KNOCK KNOCK JOKES, POLITICAL JOKES, ETC BEING POSTED IN A DAD JOKE SUB

Try telling these sexual jokes that get posted here, to your kid and see how your spouse likes it.. if that goes well, Try telling one of your friends kid about your sex life being like Coca cola, first it was normal, than light and now zero , and see if the parents are OK with you telling their kid the "dad joke"

I'm not even referencing the NSFW, I'm saying Dad jokes are corny, and sometimes painful, not sexual

So check out r/jokes for all types of jokes

r/unclejokes for dirty jokes

r/3amjokes for real weird and alot of OC

r/cleandadjokes If your really sick of seeing not dad jokes in r/dadjokes

Punchline !

Edit: this is not a post about NSFW , This is about jokes, knock knock jokes, blonde jokes, political jokes etc being posted in a dad joke sub

Edit 2: don't touch the thermostat

Do your worst!

How the hell am I suppose to know when it’s raining in Sweden?

We told her she can lean on us for support. Although, we are going to have to change her driver's license, her height is going down by a foot. I don't want to go too far out on a limb here but it better not be a hack job.

Ants don’t even have the concept fathers, let alone a good dad joke. Keep r/ants out of my r/dadjokes.

But no, seriously. I understand rule 7 is great to have intelligent discussion, but sometimes it feels like 1 in 10 posts here is someone getting upset about the jokes on this sub. Let the mods deal with it, they regulate the sub.

Mathematical puns makes me number

They were cooked in Greece.

He lost May

Said if she ever hosts a gender reveal party, when it comes time to pop the balloon she'll spray everyone with water.

Gender is fluid.

Two muffins are in an oven, one muffin looks at the other and says "is it just me, or is it hot in here?"

Then the other muffin says "AHH, TALKING MUFFIN!!!"

Don't you know a good pun is its own reword?

I'm surprised it hasn't decade.

Now that I listen to albums, I hardly ever leave the house.