unicorn

I guess you can do what most people do: use a VPN service.

I'm definitely not trying to convince anyone to start TRT, but there is nothing "cautious" about ignoring scientific studies. TRT does have its risks, and worsening of BPH is almost certainly one of them, so if you've had to take medication for BPH, I agree that you probably shouldn't take TRT. Incidentally, not ejaculating at least twice a week is associated with increased risk of both BPH and prostate cancer, so I'd encourage any man without an active sex life to jack off at least twice a week. However, I wouldn't want anyone reading this string to believe that it's still up in the air as to whether or not TRT increases the risk of prostate cancer. It does increase the risk of BPH, but not of cancer. Testosterone deficiency has its own risks, not just the obvious ones such as sex drive and mood, but also more serious ones such as loss of bone and muscle strength, with the concomitant increased fracture risk. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5376477/ "Testosterone has a clear direct effect on bone health. Testosterone signaling stimulates osteoblasts to form trabecular bone and helps osteocytes prevent trabecular bone loss. This leads to the decreased BMD and increased fracture risk seen in men with both primary and secondary hypogonadism....". The decision to treat testosterone deficiency is an individual one, which should be based on each person's individual risk profile. Since you have BPH, TRT is not for you. It may be a wise choice for others, though. Anyone with untreated testosterone deficiency for over 5 years may wish to have his bone density checked. If present, there are certainly medications which treat osteoporosis other than hormonal ones.

Or (for those of us maybe 10-15 years younger)...

Well, it's been pretty much settled scientifically that TRT does not cause prostate cancer. However, if you do develop prostate cancer, testosterone will make it grow more quickly. https://www.health.harvard.edu/mens-health/appropriate-use-of-testosterone-therapy-does-not-appear-to-raise-prostate-cancer-risk#:~:text=Appropriate use of testosterone therapy,prostate cancer risk - Harvard Health "A study published online Dec. 27, 2023, by JAMA Network Open confirms prior research showing that testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) in men with documented low testosterone levels does not increase their risk of prostate cancer compared to men not using TRT...". So while testosterone replacement doesn't increase one's risk of developing prostate cancer, it may be a good idea to screen for it if one is being prescribed TRT. This might be more the case if you have a significantly greater risk, particularly if you have an immediate relative who developed symptomatic prostate cancer (not just tested positive from PSA screening, but never developed a complication from the cancer). Testosterone gel is now generic, so there is little reason to pick injections over the gel. Gels provide a smoother delivery than injections. Unless you get a skin reaction from the gel, this is probably the preferred method. The only other theoretical disadvantage is that if you hug (or have sex) with someone shortly after application, you might transfer some of the testosterone (more of a theoretical disadvantage, and mainly if that other person is a child or woman). https://www.setforset.com/blogs/news/testosterone-gel-vs-injection

Yes, it is a repost (see jokes string in the Beer Bar).

That's an odd sum. Why not 4 million or 5 million? I guess that translates to about $130,000 (US). Not a lot of money for a life. What if he doesn't pay? Then he gets the death sentence? Otherwise, I don't see what his incentive is to pay up...

That's because it's always easier to wake up earlier than we're used to, rather than to be forced not to sleep in. Also, the daily circadian rhythm is a bit over 24 hours. https://www.sleepfoundation.org/circadian-rhythm#:~:text=“An adult's natural internal clock,shift our natural circadian rhythms.” “An adult’s natural internal clock is on average 24.2 hours. We use external stimuli to help entrain this rhythm daily to 24 hours. Changing the amount and times of sunlight exposure, or changing our routines, can send signals to our ‘master clock’ and shift our natural circadian rhythms.” That's why there's the saying "East is a beast, west is best." That being said, if I can take a nonstop flight to Europe leaving in the early evening, that'll usually get me to Europe in the late morning. Taking methylphenidate in the morning for 2 or 3 days helps keep me alert during the day, as well as a hypnotic in the evening on the flight over, and again for the next 2 or 3 days following arrival in Europe, and I'm good to go.

That was one of @Riobard's more readable posts (I agree that his writing can be barely comprehensible at times, but this was not one of those instances). To put it even more plainly, he said that your original post/insinuation was full of shit. 😉

Try leaving him a private message. He may not be following this string. Click on the envelope icon on the upper right of this page.

Wise words from TTC.

@Moses posted factually false information, and I simply did not let him get away with it. Whether it's better to retire in Thailand or the Philippines is a matter of opinion, but certain things are just factually incorrect, such as the presence of Nazis in the Ukrainian government. If someone states "I believe the earth is flat," there are only two possibilities. Either the man making that statement is a fool or a liar. To state that there are neo-Nazis with a significant influence in the government, and that there are members (plural) of a neo-Nazi party in the Ukrainian legislature, when there is only ONE, in a parliament (Rada) of 450 members is simply factually false. For what it's worth, I believe he's probably lying, and intentionally spreading misinformation, rather than simply being foolish, but I cannot, of course, know what's going on in his head. I don't have tolerance for the spread of factually false information.

You're spouting a load of crap, as usual: https://www.factcheck.org/2022/03/the-facts-on-de-nazifying-ukraine/ ...“Neo-Nazi, far right and xenophobic groups do exist in Ukraine, like in pretty much any other country, including Russia,” Finkel said. “They are vocal and can be prone to violence but they are numerically small, marginal and their political influence at the state level is non-existent. That is not to say that Ukraine doesn’t have a far-right problem. It does. But I would consider the KKK in the US and skinheads and neo-Nazi groups in Russia a much bigger problem and threat than the Ukrainian far right.”... “The claim that neo-Nazi or far-right groups hold any significant power in Ukraine is absurd,” Jared McBride, an adjunct history professor at UCLA whose work specializes in nationalist movements and mass violence and genocide in Russia and Ukraine, told us via email. “The most well-known far-right wing party, Svoboda (similar to say [Marine] Le Pen’s party or other corollaries in Europe) won 2.15 percent of the vote in 2019 election and holds one seat in the Rada – meaning they are politically irrelevant.” (Le Pen is the leader of the French far-right party the National Rally.)... The Azov battalion, which has about 1,000 members, represents a small minority of the overall Ukrainian military. As the BBC reported, the Ukrainian armed forces number some 250,000, and the National Guard — of which Azov is a part — has around 50,000 members. And some say the ultra-nationalist, neo-Nazi leanings of the Azov regiment have become less prevalent. In 2015, a spokesman for the Azov brigade told USA Today that 10% to 20% of the group’s members are Nazis. The leader of the Azov regiment, Biletsky, has since left to start a political party. And while there are still some far-right ties remaining in the unit, there have also been a flow of new recruits “who mostly are not there because of the regiment’s ideology, but because of its reputation as a particularly tough fighting unit,” Andreas Umland, an analyst at the Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs, told us in a Skype interview.... What kind of an idiot (or liar) would say that Nazis have a significant impact in a country which overwhelmingly voted a Jew into power (73% of the vote). Так кто ты — дурак или лжец?

But if Putin pushes the nuclear trigger, maybe someday we'll be calling it "The former country, previously known as Russia." 😁

https://www.aol.com/news/sexually-frustrated-dolphin-blamed-18-134443342.html "... Japan’s problematic mammal is believed to be a solitary male bottlenose dolphin, who may also be responsible for injuring swimmers in 2022 and 2023, and trying to press his genitals against them. Putu Mustika, a lecturer and marine researcher at James Cook University in Australia, told The New York Times that dolphins can inadvertently harm humans by dint of their sheer strength when acting out mating behaviors. “Dolphins, when they are mating, can be very wild,” she said, adding that the act of lunging on top of a human could be seen as a sexual act and a sign that the dolphin was “horny, lonely”...".

There are also Nazis in the Russian Federation and the USA. Doesn't mean their leaders are Nazis... 🙄 The narrative of Nazis running Ukraine has been completely debunked. https://www.dw.com/en/fact-check-is-there-any-truth-to-russias-ukrainian-nazis-propaganda/a-63970461 "...So the fact is that many of the claims about alleged "Ukrainian Nazis" are invented, or misleading. But the narrative persists because Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian propagandists are constantly spreading false information. Even in his speech (here subjected to a DW fact check) shortly before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in late February, Putin spoke of Russia having to "denazify" Ukraine. So-called denazification is a historical term that has to do with the policy of the victorious Allied powers toward Nazi Germany after World War II. They wanted to rid the country of Nazi influences and remove those associated with the ideology from office. But the comparison with Ukraine does not hold up, Andreas Umland, an analyst at the Stockholm Center for Eastern European Studies told DW back in February. "The president of Ukraine is a Russian-speaking Jew, who won the last presidential election against a non-Jewish Ukrainian candidate by a huge margin," he said, adding that the talk of Nazism in Ukraine was completely unfounded. Umland said that although there were right-wing extremists groups in Ukraine, they were relatively weak in comparison with many European countries. "We had a unity front of all the right-wing radical parties at the last [EU] parliamentary elections in 2019, and that unity front received 2.15%," he said...". https://romea.cz/en/world/speaking-of-nazis-the-donetsk-leader-of-pro-russian-separatists-honored-a-russian-soldier-with-nazi-symbols-on-his-uniform#google_vignette St. Petersburg: Khimki, a suburb of Moscow:

I must confess that I didn't read the wordy OP, but, let's face it, most people will believe a smooth talker who's saying something they want to hear, no matter how preposterous the statements the talker expounds. One has only to witness the number of people who believe the ridiculous stories in the Bible.

Слишком много водки

Dude, you're all in on the unprovoked war with Ukraine, falsely calling their Jewish leader a Nazi.

I was thinking more about Nguyễn Văn Thiệu. I thought he was democratically elected, although, based on your post, I looked it up, and it appears the election was generally considered fraudulent. I can only hope the intention was to set up democratic elections. This was all before my time, as I was a young boy at the end of the Vietnam War (which, in Vietnam, they call the American War 😉, having spent 10 days there in early 2023. The elections which were held in Afghanistan between the Taliban Emirates were generally considered free and fair. As you pointed out, there are many ways to rig elections, including control of the press, or simply killing one's opponents, as Putin does.