TLDR; My neighbor regularly parks his El Camino outside on the curb (public street) with a cover for days/weeks at a time. I submitted a ticket on the city's 311 system and city ended up talking to him. I didn't know if it was his car for sure, but I kind of suspected. Said neighbor got upset that they had police (code enforcement) follow up with them. Both city and state law says no vehicle can be parked on a public road for 72-hours consecutively.
I've tried to keep it cool with my neighbors, but they've done some pretty inconsiderate stuff in the past. They will come over an apologize if I confront them (i.e. throwing cigarette butts into my trash can and on my driveway). They've been nice in other ways though, so I feel conflicted.
The El Camino is their weekend vehicle. It's a really cool car, but it takes up parking especially when he doesn't park it efficiently. They have two other cars they also park in the neighborhood. Most of the people in the neighborhood park their vehicle on the street as well, but for their vehicles they use regularly to go to work and stuff. He parks it in a weird way that barely fits 3 cars where four cars would normally go. The car can sit there for days/weeks and it becomes an inconvenience. My other neighbor is also annoyed by it. Apparently, he's filed a complaint before too. My city has an app where you can submit parking enforcement, so I just went ahead with the process.
Should have I gone over and just ask that he re-park to give a little more space? Isn't there like public storage or some other parking solution for weekend cars? AITA?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-13489439/vegetable-oils-hidden-foods-ill-DR-CATHERINE-SHANAHAN-eating-chip-smoking-cigarette.html
Next time you go to the supermarket, read the ingredients lists. In just about every aisle, from dairy to frozen foods and snacks, you will see vegetable oils making repeated appearances on many product labels, including salad dressings, canned fish, ready-to-eat foods, diet drinks and infant formulas.
These oils, usually made from seeds, include sunflower, corn, rapeseed, soy, cottonseed and safflower oils.
Vegetable oil is a global industry. It generated more than £91 billion in 2020, and that figure is forecast to increase to £127 billion by 2027.
Roughly a third of the calories in your diet likely comes from this substance, which has effects on our metabolism that medical science knows little about. The reason why human health is increasingly in crisis is right there on the label, hidden in plain sight.
I'm a doctor with biochemistry training who specialises in family medicine, and I am convinced that these oils will make you sick (if they haven't already).
The amount of cancer-causing toxins found in a serving of French fries is equivalent to those consumed when smoking up to 25 cigarettes. (A 5oz serving has about 25 fries, so eating one chip gives the same exposure as smoking one cigarette)
The link between vegetable oil and poor health is firmly grounded and backed up with hard scientific research. Removing it from our diets can resolve fast-proliferating modern health plagues, such as cancers, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.
Vegetable oil is an industrial product that didn't exist until a little more than 150 years ago. In the millennia before industrial agriculture changed our landscape, many human populations relied on animal fats such as butter, beef fat and pork fat.
Humanity has been eating animal fats since the Stone Age, and dairy fat for nearly 10,000 years. We've also eaten oils extracted from fatty fruits such as olives and coconuts for many thousands of years.
But vegetable oils are radically different. Making them requires technologically advanced equipment rather than a simple stone press, butter churn or butcher's knife.
Yet despite the complexity of processing these products, they are now the largest single source of dietary fats, accounting for more calories in our diets than sugar or flour.
Heating oils creates toxins
A basic problem with these oils is that they are very high in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). These compounds are very prone to reacting with oxygen — a process called oxidation.
This oil oxidation creates new compounds called, collectively, lipid oxidation products (LOPs).
LOPs don't exist in the plants these products came from — and many are mildly to extremely toxic. By consuming these oils we're exposing our bodies to hundreds, even thousands, of different types of toxic LOPs.
Some of these were almost unknown until recently, when they were identified thanks to new technologies.
These toxic LOPs are formed when the oil is extracted during its manufacture.
Still more toxic LOPs can form in oil during storage, as the oil oxidises (breaks down) over time.
Toxicologists who perform real-world tests on vegetable oils in people's homes and restaurants find that even before cooking, the oils contain significantly higher concentrations of toxins than when they were first bottled.
Even more toxins form when the oil is heated to make food, whether in our homes, in restaurants, or in processed-food factories.
And yet more toxins will form if the food gets heated again, as in when leftovers are warmed up. There are volumes of academic textbooks that describe all the toxins you expose yourself to from eating foods made with vegetable oils.
Yet few people ever read these books or learn about the damning information they contain.
Not all are toxic if heated
Martin Grootveld, a professor of bioanalytical chemistry and chemical pathology at De Montfort University in Leicester, has been trying to warn consumers about toxins in vegetable oils for decades.
He studies oxidation reactions using the best tool for analysing an array of molecules all at once: a one and two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscope. This machine can determine the make-up of a molecule by examining how its atoms spin when inside a magnetic field.
The toxins he has identified in vegetable oils include acrolein. This inflames lungs when inhaled, which we may do when frying with these oils. He has also found many members of a toxin category called epoxy fatty acids. These are implicated in breast cancer, organ failure and fertility problems.
Professor Grootveld's analyses consistently show that heated vegetable oils are loaded with toxic LOPs.
By contrast, his experiments with heated coconut oil and butter find that they contain hardly any toxins at all.
However, such is the medical ignorance of these dangers that when I asked Professor Grootveld if he'd ever been invited to present his data at a medical conference, he told me he had not.
What's in those fries?
Aldehydes are perhaps the most dangerous category of the many families of toxins in vegetable oils. This family of chemicals includes the cadaver preservative formaldehyde and many of the toxins that make cigarette smoke carcinogenic and irritating to human tissue.
Toxic aldehydes that form in frying oil can end up in the food.
In 2019, Professor Grootveld led research, published in the prestigious journal Nature, which found that a 5oz serving of French fries cooked in vegetable oil (from a well-known franchise) contained 25 times more carcinogenic aldehydes than the World Health Organisation's tolerable upper limit for exposure.
Professor Grootveld told me that the amount of cancer-causing aldehydes he found in the serving of French fries is equivalent to those consumed when smoking up to 25 cigarettes. (A 5oz serving has about 25 fries, so eating one chip gives the same exposure as smoking one cigarette.)
Deep-frying leads to more toxins
The level of damage done to polyunsaturated oils by oxidation follows the same basic principles as burns on your skin: it depends on time and temperature.
Experts warn that the longer the oil is cooked and the higher the cooking temperature, the more toxins will form.
Eric Decker, a professor of food science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the U.S., is one of the most highly cited scientists in agriculture.
He focuses on preventing oxidation in our food supply, and told me that when it comes to toxin production, 'the biggest risk factor is deep-frying the oil'.
Deep-frying stresses oils for a long time at high temperatures. Fast-food chains often have rules that tell employees to reduce toxicity by changing the frying oil once a week. Smaller eateries and chains may not.
Roughly a third of the calories in your diet likely comes from vegetable oil, which has effects on our metabolism that medical science knows little about
...But pan-frying is a close second
A report in the American Journal of Epidemiology in 2000 identified an alarmingly high rate of lung cancer in non-smoking women who use vegetable oils during pan-frying, deep-frying and stir-frying, both in food service settings and their own homes.
Many people know deep-frying is not healthy and avoid deep-fried foods. That's why Professor Grootveld is more concerned about shallow-frying food in pans using vegetable oils.
He has published several papers in various prestigious journals, including a 2019 paper in Scientific Reports warning that you can generate the same 'extremely high levels of hazardous aldehydes' while making popular pan-fried dishes at home.
So it's not just about deep-fried food, and it's not just about restaurants. This could be happening in your kitchen.
Body fat becomes like veg oil
Dr Stephan Guyenet is an independent neuroscientist who has investigated what our increasing consumption of vegetable oils is doing to our body fat.
In the journal Advances in Nutrition in 2015 he published a review of 50 years of studies on the composition of Westerners' body fat.
This showed that the proportion of polyunsaturated fatty acids in it had gradually increased from 9.1 per cent of all fatty acids to 21.5 per cent. This was in line with increasing public consumption of vegetable oils. The lesson was clear: the more vegetable oil people ate, the more their body fat started to look like vegetable oil.
Our reformulated body fat causes a fundamental shift in our body chemistry. This subjects our cells and tissues to a chemical imbalance called oxidative stress.
Oxidative stress unleashes carcinogenic toxins in cells that can damage proteins and DNA.
Is there a link to Alzheimer's?
In 1906, German pathologist Alois Alzheimer examined slices of brain tissue from a woman who died of early-onset dementia. He found unusual clumps of protein, which he called amyloid plaques.
But the origin of the plaques eluded scientific explanation until U.S. and Japanese researchers reported that these plaques are caused by oxidative stress, in 2001 in the Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology. Their research showed that oxidative stress damages proteins, generating tiny blobs of cellular debris.
Our brain cells have garbage-disposal systems that can clean up most types of debris. But not all — and not amyloid. The amyloid that the clean-up crew can't handle will accumulate within the cell, and eventually it starts forming amyloid plaques.
The accumulating plaque slows down cellular activity, which slows down the brain's processing speed — and that's when symptoms usually begin.
Many degenerative disorders follow a similar progression.
Another common disease-inducing protein blob is oxidised alpha-synuclein, which causes Parkinson's disease and Lewy body dementia (the second most common dementia, after Alzheimer's).
A study found that a 5oz serving of French fries cooked in vegetable oil contained 25 times more toxins than the World Health Organisation's tolerable upper limit for exposure
How to de-pufa your body
While I have no doubt that we can get our PUFA levels back down to normal, it takes a while. One study, from 1960, showed that the half-life of PUFA in our body fat ranged from 350 to 750 days, which means it takes that long to clear out just half of it.
More recent studies, such as a report in the journal Cell Metabolism in 2011, pinpoint a similar figure: 580 days on average. So we're looking at three or four years of avoiding vegetable oils to normalise the amount of PUFAs in your body fat.
However, from my experience with patients, the good news is that usually people feel better within a couple of weeks of cutting out vegetable oils, particularly if they suffer from chronic pain or stomach problems, because their bodies' inflammation levels will have dropped significantly.
So how do you know what to look for? Check the ingredients list of every product that has a nutrition label. Every. Single. One. Because you simply can't predict what will have vegetable oil in.
You might think that dried fruits, for example, wouldn't, but they do. Or peanut butter. Or nuts, rotisserie chicken, mayonnaise and dressings that say 'made with olive oil', granola, canned tuna, olives, sun-dried tomatoes and other vegetable preserves, even random things such as vitamins and spice blends.
Most people who shun vegetable oils tend to use butter, olive oil and peanut oil. For home cooking with healthy oils, you need to choose the oil that matches the cuisine.
I use olive oil for homemade pasta sauces and anything Italian, Mediterranean — or even Mexican (the traditional fat would be lard, which I can't easily get). I also use it for roasting vegetables and making dressings, marinades and mayonnaise. If you like to make Thai and Indian dishes, you might want to add coconut oil.
How to avoid these oils if eating out
Restaurants take advantage of the fact that vegetable oils cost less than traditional fats and oils such as olive oil and butter.
Many use vegetable oil in all deep-fried, pan-fried and batter-fried foods (including crispy noodles, onion rings, fried shrimp, chicken dishes and Japanese tempura). Restaurants love to serve deep-fried food because the process is so simple that you can hire staff without any culinary skills whatsoever.
Avoiding deep-fried food is the number one rule for eating in restaurants and grabbing food out. Anything battered or breaded and fried is typically deep-fried — and in fast-food restaurants and many other establishments, it's often fried twice — once at the factory and a second time before it's served.
More than half of the calories in some deep-fried foods are in the form of the most oxidised and disease-inducing, heat-deformed vegetable oils.
Dishes that are baked or steamed instead are clearly preferable to anything that's fried.
Restaurants also use vegetable oils in sauces traditionally made with butter or olive oil, including hollandaise sauce and aioli.
Most salad dressings contain vegetable oil in place of olive oil or cream. (Any restaurant dish that contains mayonnaise will likely contain vegetable oil, since it is rarely made with olive oil.)
Vegetable oils are also baked into doughnuts, Danish pastries, muffins and numerous other desserts and confections.
My 'hateful eight' oils to avoid

• Corn oil
• Rapeseed oil
• Sunflower oil
• Soy oil
• Cottonseed oil
• Safflower oil
• Grapeseed oil
• Rice bran oil

My 'delightful dozen' good fats

• Butteghee
• Extra-virgin olive oil or unfiltered refined olive oil
• Unrefined peanut oil
• Unrefined coconut oil
• Unrefined avocado oil
• Sesame oil
• Unrefined palm oil
• Bacon fat
• Tallow
• Lard
• Chicken fat
• Unrefined tree nut oils (almond, hazelnut, pecan, etc.)

What about refined versions of peanut oil, for example? These oils are not nourishing, but they're not as bad as my Hateful Eight, so fall into a middle category of 'OK but not great'.
You don't need to avoid them, but if a more nutritious alternative is available I'd recommend that instead.
Some people worry about 'smoke point' — this is a term used by the oil industry to sell lower-quality, refined oils, which always have higher smoke points than their extra-virgin (i.e. unrefined) counterparts.
These lower-quality oils also have fewer antioxidants, which means they oxidise at lower temperatures than higher-quality oils, so your food will contain more toxins.
Smoke point simply refers to the temperature at which a fat starts to smoke. It doesn't tell you what you really need to know, which is whether the oil is oxidising or not (only toxicology testing can tell you that).
At the smoke point, you might see a wisp of light blue smoke, and heating the fat past that point will fill the air with bitter smoke and ruin the food.
An oil with a high smoke point allows for higher heat and faster cooking, which makes things go quicker in a busy restaurant. But when your high smoke-point oil is also refined and high in polyunsaturates, you're exchanging speed for toxicity.
The suggestion is that using an oil with a higher smoke point preserves the food's flavour. But a high smoke-point oil doesn't do that.
What does? Using normal cooking techniques such as stirring and turning down the heat. Most foods should not be cooked at super-high temperatures anyway, because heat also destroys the nutrition in the food: the higher you heat something, the less nutritious it becomes.
Adapted from Dark Calories: How Vegetable Oils Destroy Our Health And How We Can Get It Back, by Dr Catherine Shanahan (Orion Publishing, £18.99), to be published on June 13. To order a copy for £17.09 (offer valid to 08/08/24; UK P&P free on orders over £25) go to mailshop.co.uk/books or call 020 3176 2937.Next time you go to the supermarket, read the ingredients lists. In just about every aisle, from dairy to frozen foods and snacks, you will see vegetable oils making repeated appearances on many product labels, including salad dressings, canned fish, ready-to-eat foods, diet drinks and infant formulas.

When it comes to vaping, the quality of your experience is heavily dependent on how well you maintain your supplies, especially your e-liquids. Storing vape e-liquids correctly is crucial for preserving their flavors and nicotine content and ensuring safety. This article provides comprehensive guidance tailored for regulatory agencies overseeing the vaping industry, focusing on best practices for e-liquid storage.
Have you ever wondered why your vape e-liquid starts to lose flavor or thicken over time? The way you store your e-liquids can significantly impact their quality and safety. This guide will explore how regulatory bodies can better understand and oversee these practices, ensuring they align with safety standards and consumer protection.

Understanding E-Liquids

What Are E-Liquids?

E-liquids, also known as vape juice, generate vapor in vaporizers and e-cigarettes. They commonly contain a base (typically a blend of propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin), flavorings, and nicotine. Recognizing their makeup is crucial to understanding the importance of appropriate storage for your vaping style.

Importance of Proper Storage

Why Store E-Liquids Correctly?

Proper storage helps maintain e-liquids' chemical integrity, prevent contamination, and extend shelf life. Understanding these needs allows regulatory bodies to develop guidelines that ensure consumer safety and product quality.

Ideal Storage Conditions

What Conditions Preserve E-Liquids Best?

When selecting e-liquids, opt for storage in cool, dark, and stable environments. Consistency plays a vital role in safeguarding the ingredients from degradation, especially nicotine, which is susceptible to heat and light.

The Role of Temperature

How Does Temperature Affect E-Liquids?

High temperatures can lead to the breakdown of nicotine and flavors, altering the taste and potency of the liquid. Regulatory agencies should emphasize the importance of cool storage in consumer guidelines and industry regulations.

The Impact of Light and Air

Why Shield E-Liquids from Light and Air?

Exposure to light and air can oxidize nicotine and diminish flavor. This knowledge should be incorporated into safety standards, with recommendations for air-tight, opaque storage containers.

Storage Containers

What Are the Best Types of Containers for E-Liquids?

Glass bottles are preferred for long-term storage of e-liquids, as they don't interact with the liquid like some plastics can. Ensuring these containers are properly sealed and stored away from direct sunlight is essential.

Long-Term Storage Solutions

How to Manage Bulk or Long-Term Storage?

Regulating how vendors and consumers manage bulk storage is vital for regulatory bodies. Recommendations include rotation systems and proper labeling to track shelf life and batch numbers.

Handling and Usage Best Practices

Best Practices for Daily Use

Educating on handling e-liquids daily—from shaking the bottle to keeping the cap tightly closed after use—can significantly affect product quality.

Regulatory Considerations

What Should Regulations Focus On?

Regulations should address labeling, packaging, and storage requirements that align with the latest scientific research on e-liquid stability and safety.

Common Storage Mistakes

What to Avoid

Avoiding heat sources, direct sunlight, and fluctuating environments are critical points that regulations should help to enforce.

Innovations in Storage Technology

Emerging Trends and Technologies

Exploring and endorsing technological solutions like temperature-controlled storage units can be a forward-thinking aspect of regulation.

Educating Consumers

How to Inform the Public?

Clear, accessible guidelines and educational materials on proper e-liquid storage can help enhance consumer safety and compliance.

To Wrap It Up

The correct storage of vape e-liquids is not just about prolonging shelf life—it's about ensuring safety and quality. As regulators, it is imperative to establish and promote standards that protect consumers and guide manufacturers.

As the popularity of vaping continues to rise, understanding how vape juice is made becomes increasingly valuable, particularly for health professionals. Whether you are a doctor, nurse, or public health educator, foundational knowledge of the components and processes involved in making vape e-liquids can enhance your ability to discuss risks and safety with patients. Let’s dive into this practical guide on how beginners can create their vape juice, ensuring you can provide accurate and relevant information as a health professional.
Vape juice, or e-liquid, is the fluid used in vaporizers and electronic cigarettes to create the actual vapor. It comes in various flavors and nicotine strengths. But what goes into it, and how can you make it safely at home? This guide will walk you through the basics, suitable for anyone starting.

Understanding Vape Juice Components

Vape juice typically consists of propylene glycol (PG), vegetable glycerin (VG), nicotine (optional), and flavorings. PG and VG serve as the base or carrier for the nicotine and flavors, and their ratios can affect the vapor's thickness and the taste's intensity.

Safety Considerations

Before you start mixing your vape juice, it’s crucial to understand the safety implications. Handling nicotine, especially in its concentrated form, requires care and appropriate safety gear like gloves and goggles.

Step-by-Step Guide to Making Vape Juice

Making your vape juice involves several steps, each important to ensure the quality and safety of the final product. We'll go through each step, from choosing ingredients to storage.

Choosing the Right Ingredients

When guiding patients, health professionals should prioritize choosing top-notch ingredients. Focusing on the origin and quality of ingredients can reduce health risks linked to low-quality products and vaping styles.

Measuring Ingredients

Accuracy in measuring the components is critical to producing a safe and enjoyable vape juice. Use precise scales and clean syringes for liquid components.

Mixing Ingredients

Combining the base liquids, nicotine, and flavors must be done in a clean, safe environment. Thorough stirring is necessary to ensure that the mixture is homogenous.

Steeping

Like letting an acceptable wine age, steeping allows the flavors in vape juice to mature and fully develop. The process can vary from a few days to several weeks.

Storage and Safety

Proper storage of vape juice is essential. To preserve quality, it should be kept in a cool, dark place. Proper labeling and child-proof containers are also vital for safety.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Newcomers often need to correct mistakes such as using imprecise measurements or poor-quality ingredients. Highlighting these can help prevent undesirable outcomes and health risks.

Health Implications

Health professionals must grasp the potential health impacts of each ingredient and the risks linked to crafting homemade vape juices. This understanding is vital in offering holistic guidance to individuals exploring DIY choices and selecting e-liquids wisely.

Legal and Ethical Considerations

It’s essential to be aware of the legal status of vaping and vape juice production in your area, as well as the ethical considerations of advising on DIY vape juice.

Alternatives to DIY Vape Juice

For those hesitant to make their own, ready-made options offer safety and convenience but come with their considerations, which health professionals should be ready to discuss.

To Wrap It Up

Creating homemade vape juice can be fulfilling when executed correctly and safely. For healthcare providers, grasping this procedure boosts your expertise and provides you with the necessary insights to lead conversations on the vaping experience.

Safety is a top priority in the changing vaping scene, especially for regulatory bodies safeguarding public health. As these agencies work on grasping and controlling the components of vape e-liquids, guaranteeing safety standards becomes not just a suggestion but a requirement. What methods can be used to confirm the safety of these items? Let's delve into practical ways to choose e-liquids for vaping.

Understanding Vape E-Liquids

Vape e-liquids, or vape juice, are the fluids used in electronic cigarettes and vaporizers to create vapor. Typically, they consist of propylene glycol (PG), vegetable glycerin (VG), flavorings, and nicotine. But what makes an e-liquid safe? It’s not just about what’s in it; it’s about how it’s made.

Regulatory Standards for Vape E-Liquids

Regulatory bodies have set specific standards for vape e-liquids to ensure their safety. These standards often include restrictions on certain chemicals and requirements for manufacturer transparency. Knowing these can help determine if an e-liquid meets the necessary safety criteria.

The Role of Ingredients in Safety

The safety of an e-liquid heavily relies on its ingredients. High-quality ingredients with minimal contaminants lead to a safer product. Checking that the e-liquid contains pharmaceutical-grade PG, VG, and food-grade flavorings is vital.

Checking for Compliance and Certifications

When choosing e-liquids, prioritize those that meet local and global standards. Certifications like ISO or alignment with FDA regulations promise safety and quality for your vaping style.

The Importance of Reputable Sources

Purchasing e-liquids from reputable sources is crucial. Trusted manufacturers are more likely to adhere to strict manufacturing processes and quality control measures, significantly reducing the risk of contaminated products.

Packaging and Labeling Standards

Safe e-liquids should be packaged in child-resistant materials and clearly labeled with all ingredients, nicotine strength, and the proper warnings. Packaging can often provide insights into the manufacturer's attention to compliance and safety.

Nicotine Content and Its Implications

Understanding the nicotine content in e-liquids is essential, especially for regulatory agencies monitoring addiction levels and associated risks. Nicotine should be accurately labeled, and variations from the stated amount can be a red flag.

Role of Flavorings in Vape Safety

Flavorings are appealing, but scrutinize their sources and compositions. Some incredibly complex synthetic flavorings can degrade under heat and form harmful byproducts.

Identifying Contaminants and Impurities

Contaminants such as metals from coils or impurities in the ingredients can pose serious health risks. Regulators should ensure all e-liquids are free from harmful impurities through rigorous testing protocols.

Storage and Handling Tips

Proper storage and handling can extend the life of e-liquids and maintain their safety. Keep them away from direct sunlight and extreme temperatures to prevent degradation.

Batch Testing and Quality Control

Manufacturers utilize batch testing to guarantee uniformity and safety throughout production. This is essential for upholding standards and detecting potential issues before products enhance consumers' vaping experience.

Understanding Propylene Glycol and Vegetable Glycerin

The ratio of PG to VG can affect the throat hit and vapor production of e-liquids. Each component should be of high quality and used in appropriate ratios to ensure safety and satisfaction.

The Impact of Battery Technology on E-Liquid Safety

Though not directly related to the liquid, the technology behind vaping devices, especially batteries, can impact safety. Regulatory agencies must consider how battery safety affects overall vaping safety.

How to Report Safety Concerns

Knowing how to report a safety issue is crucial. Ensure clear pathways for consumers to report problems, helping regulatory bodies track and address potential safety issues efficiently.

To Wrap It Up

Ensuring the safety of vape e-liquids is not just beneficial—it's essential. Regulatory bodies play a critical role by setting standards, conducting oversight, and fostering transparency. Following these guidelines can help ensure the products meet the highest safety standards.
This guide aims to arm regulatory agencies with the knowledge they need to ensure that vape e-liquids are safe for public use, fostering a safer environment for everyone.

For the safety of riders and bystanders, it is prohibited to use or hold mobile phones, cameras or loose items whilst riding. Body-worn cameras are not permitted. To ensure your safety, bags of all sizes are not allowed onboard the ride. They must be removed and placed in the storage area on the far side of the station. Loose items including phones, keys, wallets, hats and glasses must be secured before boarding. Items that cannot be made secure must be placed in the storage area on the far side of the station. Thorpe Park is not responsible for any items left in the storage area. For items of value, please use the secure lockers located around the park. No eating, drinking, or smoking during the ride. For the comfort of those around you, smoking, including e-cigarettes is not permitted in the queue line. Shirts and shoes must be worn whilst riding. Shoes must be secure, high heels are not permitted. We recommend tying back long hair and removing long garments such as scarves before boarding.

A major issue with vape batteries is their potential to explode in specific situations. This piece delves into the causes of these incidents, which are vital for regulatory entities overseeing vaping product safety. Understanding battery tech basics and related hazards empowers regulators to create protective measures for consumers, considering various vaping styles.
Why do vape batteries explode? This question not only sparks curiosity but is critically important for those tasked with regulating vaping products. In this article, we will explore the intricacies of vape batteries—their composition, joint issues, and preventative measures—to help create a safer vaping environment.

What Are Vape Batteries?

Vape batteries are the power source for electronic cigarettes, providing the necessary energy to heat the e-liquid into vapor. The most common type used in vaping devices is the lithium-ion battery, known for its efficiency and capacity to hold a considerable charge.

Understanding Battery Composition

While effective, lithium-ion batteries come with risks. They consist of a cathode and an anode separated by a liquid electrolyte solution. If this internal structure is compromised, there's a risk of a thermal runaway—a condition in which increasing temperature can lead to a violent reaction.

Common Causes of Battery Failures

What leads a seemingly stable vape battery to erupt so violently? Manufacturing defects, wear and tear, and improper usage can all contribute to battery failures. Each factor alone might not cause an issue, but they can create a perfect storm, leading to an explosion in combination.

External Factors Influencing Safety

External influences such as extreme temperatures, using incompatible chargers, or physical damage to the battery can all compromise its integrity. Just as we wouldn't expose a smartphone to harsh conditions, the same care should apply to vape batteries.

Internal Factors and Malfunctions

Internally, if a battery's protective circuitry fails or if the separator between the anode and cathode is breached, the result can be catastrophic. It’s akin to knocking down the walls of a dam; without anything to hold back the water (energy), disaster ensues.

Case Studies of Battery Explosions

Analyzing past incidents where vape batteries exploded provides valuable lessons on the importance of quality control and user education. These real-life examples underline the potential consequences of negligence.

Preventative Measures for Safety

Ensuring the safety of vape devices starts with rigorous testing and adherence to quality standards. Users must be educated on proper battery handling and storage to reduce risk.

Role of Regulatory Bodies

Regulatory agencies play a pivotal role in ensuring that safe practices are followed in the manufacture and use of vape products. They set standards that manufacturers must adhere to and help inform the public about safe vaping practices.

Creating Effective Regulations

Developing regulations isn't just about laying down rules; it's about understanding the technology behind the devices. Regions can create more targeted and effective policies by fully understanding how batteries function and fail.

Monitoring and Compliance

Continuous monitoring and enforcing compliance are crucial. Regulatory bodies must monitor manufacturers closely and swiftly act on deviations from safety norms.

Future of Vape Battery Technology

Innovation in battery technology continues to advance. Staying updated with these advancements is crucial for regulatory agencies to anticipate and mitigate future risks.

To Wrap It Up

It's crucial to grasp the vape batteries' dynamics and failure factors to craft robust safety regulations. Embracing a proactive stance enables regulatory bodies to safeguard consumer health and enhance the vaping experience by promoting the safe usage of vaping products.

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[First Contact] [Dark Ages] [First] [Prev] [Next] [wiki]
"And so it came to pass that the First of the Apostles, Enraged Phillip, Orisis of the Warsteel Flame, the Walking Warcrime and a hundred other names besides was washed clean of his past. Reborn under the hand of the Detainee, rebuilt as he was ever meant to be, Daxin Freeborn, new born, gave up his titles and accolades, surrendered to the will of the universe... and received in turn all that he had truly wanted." - Fables of Terra, Telkan Publishing House, 21,540 TXE
It was 'night' according to the *Gray Lady'*s shipboard clock. The halls were dimly lit, well enough to navigate easily, but dim enough that the lights from the holograms on the walls lit the wall around them.
Captain N'Skrek stopped outside the cabin door and rang the chime. After a moment the door whooshed open and he heard the Vice-Admiral say "Enter".
Just the way the Vice-Admiral spoke made N'Skrek slightly jealous. Even calm conversational speech the Vice-Admiral's voice was deep, rumbling, soothing, confident, projecting efficiency and dedication just by its mere existence.
N'Skrek wished he was in possession of such a voice.
He moved in, moving carefully due to his size.
The Admiral was in his duty trousers, comfortable looking fuzzy slippers, his undershirt, relaxing on the couch across from where a Treana'ad chair was reconfiguring from its former love-seat configuration. On the table in front of the Vice-Admiral was a bottle of amber liquid, a single glass half full with four ice cubes in it, and a holo-emitter that had a wireframe of a spaceship suspended in the cone, with data-boxes scattered around it.
"Ah, Captain," the Vice-Admiral said, standing up. "What brings you to my humble quarters this late at night?"
N'Skrek moved over to the chair, straddling it and settling down. "Just a few personal questions, Vice-Admiral."
"Always happy to share as long as it isn't too personal," the Vice-Admiral smiled. He sat down, lifted up a glass of a pale amber liquid. "Whiskey?"
"No, thank you," N'Skrek said. He looked around and was slightly startled at how lived-in the cabin looked. Holos and 2D snaps in frames, award letters here and there, books on the shelves, knicknacks sitting in magnetic base holders. There were even a few boxes, still taped up, next to the walls. The kitchen looked used but neat and tidy, the small 15x10 dining room had a feeling of meals eaten in companionship.
Sheer bulk and size of some of the Confederacy's members made it so that the size of personal quarters would seem lavish to smaller species.
It had a feeling that the Vice-Admiral had lived in the cabin for decades, not been run off by a bio-printer only a few days prior.
"Pardon the mess, I'm still moving in," the Vice-Admiral smiled. "Would you care for refreshment? I have a few cigars and a pack or two of cigarettes."
"No, thank you, Admiral Breakheader," N'Skrek said.
"Call me Raul, Captain, we're in an informal setting," the Vice-Admiral chuckled.
"May I ask what you're looking at, Raul?" N'Skrek asked.
The Vice-Admiral spun the hologram so that N'Skrek could see it clearly. It was a heavy cruiser in the Triumph class. Data on weaponry, shielding, drives, and personnel had been expanded into the boxes.
"Slowly catching up on the differences in ship construction, firepower, and operational expectations," Raul Breakheader said. "While not that much different from what I commanded, there are signifigant changes. The weapons fire faster, the shield emitters and the weapons cool faster, the drives emit less signature, have more power and endurance, and manpower requirements have gone down thanks to improvements in automation that I have determined are more than likely from applying Lanaktallan and Mantid automation theories and protocols. The point defense is more accurate and faster firing, the sensor packages are different, more high resolution, with better range and faster result return."
N'Skrek nodded.
"This heavy cruiser has the firepower, endurance, and capacity to soak up the damage of a battleship while only having the manpower of a light cruiser from my era," Raul said. He shook his head and gave a rueful chuckle. "Three hundred years of experience flushed down the tubes by Father Time."
"Is it really that bad?" N'Skrek asked.
"It's bad for me, good for the Confederacy, bad for the Mar-gite, good for the poor bastards we're trying to save," Raul said. He took a drink off of his class. "My assumptions and instincts are all wrong," he waved his hand through the hologram, dismissing it. "I've run a few wargame simulations with my former staff. Our tactics and strategy skills are still applicable, but the new capabilities of the equipment is something we're still burning into our brains and mental reflexes."
N'Skrek realized he suddenly did want a drink and a smoke.
"I'll take that drink and a cigarette," N'Skrek said.
Raul nodded, pouring a drink and getting up to get the pack of cigarettes and a lighter, setting the ashtray down first.
N'Skrek sipped at the drink for a moment then lit a cigarette.
"Does it bother you, being this out of data when it comes to information?" N'Skrek asked.
Raul gave a laugh. "Believe it or not, it bothers me more than giving up command of the Gray Lady bothered me. I can't be trusted to give advice, since weapon ranges are longer with more accuracy. I'd swan right into the enemy's range thinking I was a good hundred thousand kilometers beyond maximum effective range. That gets good sailors killed."
"I still want you in an advisory role," N'Skrek said.
Raul nodded. "Outside of ship to ship combat, I'm your man."
"That's why I wanted to ask you a few personal questions."
"Ask away."
"I've been perusing your service record. You and the rest of the former command staff," N'Skrek said. "The tactics from the First Mar-gite War, there's not much data."
"It was what, forty-thousand years ago?" Raul took another drink off his glass. "The only ones that would keep that data would be the Mantid and Lank deep storage databases."
"There seems to be large gaps, even from I've been able to pull up. I can't figure out why," N'Skrek admitted.
"Because we cracked planets, novasparked suns, and went full scorched earth to stop them," Raul said. He closed his eyes and reached up to rub his temples with his middle and forefingers. "A complete shitshow. It brought about the end of the Confederate Senate. The Confederacy was doing pretty bad already, with the Confederate Congress getting lynched enmasse when everyone found out what the Mar-gite were doing."
He sipped at his glass.
"We cut off their reinforcements, surrounded them, pushed them tighter and tighter into a circle using Gen-Kiss-Can tactics. What we didn't planet crack or novaspark, we eradicated from the ground," he sighed and sipped at his glass. "Any silicon based planet was cracked and gecko'd into a new carbon based planet."
He set down the glass.
"It was a pretty dark time, but it's the only tactic that can work," he said. He tapped the table. "You had another Mar-gite war, but didn't follow out tactics, which is why you had a resurgence less than three hundred years later. You missed their longsleep vessels," he tapped next to the holoemitter. "That's OK. We missed those silver ships."
"Those give off a pulse that disables electronics, shuts down computer systems, and causes reactors to go into emergency shutdown," N'Skrek said. "Zero point reactors aren't affected, which is why right now the Fleet is strapping zero point reactors to the power rooms of the ships."
It was Raul's turn to nod silently.
"Your vessels use sensor system bandwidth we didn't even know existed back then. There's a good chance that we missed those vessels and they ran home with the data then spent forty-thousand years coming up with a single trick to disable our vessels," Raul said. He gave a chuckle. "That tells me a lot about them right there."
"What?" N'Skrek took a long drag of his cigarette, relaxing.
"They're a Precursor race. One trick ponies. They find one trick, at first just the Mar-gite, to overwhelm everyone else. They probably have their own 'there is only enough for one' stupidity going on. When that didn't work, they didn't bother trying to find a multi-layered multi-prong counter to us, like Confederate battle doctrine states, but instead put all their effort to a single attack that would grant them victory," Raul said. He tapped the table with the edge of his glass. "Your people and mine are the only heavy hitters that never did that. Treana'ad tried multiple approaches and you know humans."
"Not really," N'Skrek said. "You've been gone a long time."
Raul nodded, tapping his glass on the tabletop. "Yeah. I forgot. My people throw rocks, spears, pile on the leopard with knives, spears, bare hands, and teeth. Your people and mine, we use the shotgun approach, everyone else used 'this works all the time against everyone' on their foes."
N'Skrek sipped at the glass, the taste going from burning to a warm soothing.
"I looked up the Mithril Nebula Conflict, but data is sparse," he said.
The Vice-Admiral poured himself another glass. "Elves that fell to Hellspace worship. Effective and tenacious fighters. Lasted over a hundred years. Again, planet crackers and glassing from orbit. Massive fleet engagements and ground fighting. Tens of millions of troops on thousands of planets, all tearing each other's guts out."
"Sounds bad," N'Skrek said.
"It was," Raul said. He sipped at the glass. "Not as bad as Orion's Shoulder or Tannhauser Gate, but still really bad."
N'Skrek took another sip. "There's another mention that has almost no data."
Raul stiffened slightly, looking away.
"The Clownface Nebula Conflict. I was interested in your..."
Raul looked N'Skrek in the face and N'Skrek found himself drawing back.
The human's eyes were glowing a hot amber.
"I don't know you well enough," the human growled.
N'Skrek had thought the tales, the historical records, had been mistaken about the way a human's eyes glowed in response to their emotions.
Not any more.
Staring into those hot amber eyes, the cold blue still visible somehow behind the amber, he found himself swallowing thickly.
"Oh."
Specialist Grade Five Gulgulka was a Drimarian, a cold blooded reptillian/mammalian mix almost biologically incapable of excitement.
He was the assigned Master Armorer for the Telkan Marine Division aboard the Gray Lady.
He was also a dick.
What mattered to him was all of the Arms Rooms passing inspection. All the weapons passing cleanliness inspections. All of the armors passing inspection.
Nothing else mattered.
He didn't care about the feelings of the personnel turning in the weapons and armor. To him, there was no "I'll do it tomorrow" because if a being could do it tomorrow, then they could come down and do a level three cleaning tomorrow after a level one cleaning today.
It didn't matter what time their CO said they would be released.
Nobody left the Arms Rooms until their weapons and armor were cleaned to at least baseline Level Two standards.
He didn't care that troops were forced to rub the bluing off the weapons. He didn't care that the 'cleaning' scraped the parts over and over to remove even the most miniscule traces of carbon or silicon powder. He didn't care that the power lead contacts were scrubbed over and over to make them shine.
No, what mattered is that the Arms Rooms under his control could pass an inspection at any time.
Every sixty to ninety days, all weapons and armor were pulled to be cleaned again.
The second most important thing was dress right dress. In civilian terms it meant that everything was perfectly identical, that it all lined up neatly and exactly. All slogans, graffiti, modifications all had to be removed. All non-standard additions were to be removed before the armor or weapons were accepted.
If the trooper had added an additional coolant line to the M318 or the M2D2E7, well, it had to come off and the changes undone.
He didn't care about troops whining about 'field efficiency' or 'operational modifications', what he cared about was dress right dress.
Which meant the two dozen Helreginn, Mark II suits offended him.
He was currently at one of the Telkan Marine Corps Arms Rooms, which, he had reminded the Armorer, fell underneath his jurisdiction as the Master Armorer.
The majority of the armor was proper Telkan Marine Powered Combat Armor.
Except those two dozen suits.
Ten of them had graffiti on them. From "Can't Touch This" to "Bring the Brrrt!" to cartoon starfish with "Sad Starfish Noises" above it. The weapons were all older models. Thousands of years out of date and dating back to the Second Mar-gite War.
"I want those suits replaced with modern suits," Gulgulka said, his voice bubbly and hoarse, like all the males of his species. "Those suits are not listed upon the shipboard TO&E for the Telkan Marines."
The Telkan stared at him for a moment. "I was ordered by Division Command to replace all of the standard modern suits with the Helreginn Mark II models."
"Not according to the TO&E," Gulkgulka said. "I don't care what's claimed, but unless the TO&E has changed, the only authorized suits are the Telkan Powered Combat Armor series," he made a tossing motion to a nearby holoemitter. It came to life, displaying the power armor listing for the Kilo Company TO&E.
"Those armors, in that exact number. No more, no less, no unauthorized markings or additions," Gulkgulka said. "Until then, this Arms Room is considered out of regulation and I expect it to conform to standards within two standard ship days."
"But..." the Armorer started.
"Two days," Gulkgulka said. He left, ignoring the Telkan's protests.
It was three days until the fleet came out of hyperspace to Point Iota of the Mar-gite Defensive Line.
Gulkgulka intended on his armories passing inspection when the fleet arrived.
Specialist Grade Five Armkept stepped exactly one pace from the front of Captain Nakwel's desk. The Captain was dressed in his PT uniform, a water bottle in one hand that the Captain was drinking out of. Armkept waited until the Captain finished drinking before saluting. The Captain returned the salute.
"At ease, Marine," Captain Nakwel said. He squinted slightly. "You looked pissed off."
"That dick of a Master Armorer is visiting the armories today," Armkept said.
"We pass?" Nakwel asked.
Armkept shook his head. "No."
"Something not servicable?" Nakwel asked.
Armkept shook his head again. "No, sir. Everything is ready to go. He just wants everything stripped back down to frame, he wants the Helreginn suits replaced with the standard M9 Powered Combat Suits, and he wants everything cleaned again, sir."
"Tell him to eat rocks," Nakwel said. He tapped the emitter, bringing up his email, and scanned it. When he found what he was looking for, he tapped the email and brought it up before waving a hand through it to toss it to Armkept. "There. That's Corps wide. Straight from Telkan itself. Helreginn Mark II suits only."
"He said if it isn't on the TO&E, he doesn't care, sir," Armkept said.
"I'll get with someone, tell that Space Force idiot to keep away from us," Captain Nakwel said. He sighed. "Great, now I have to go see the Battalion Commander."
"Sorry to cause so much problem, sir," Armkept said.
"Better this than having my ass hanging out while a couple million Mar-gite charge us," the Captain mumbled.
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https://web.archive.org/web/20210419222349/https://breaknutrition.com/omega-6-fatty-acids-alternative-hypothesis-diseases-civilization/

Omega-6 fatty acids: the alternative hypothesis for diseases of civilization

by breaknutrition Aug 25, 2017

Diseases of civilization

The world is facing a health crisis of unprecedented proportions. What have become known as chronic diseases, Western Diseases, or Diseases of Civilization (DC), have become pandemic as populations around the world adopt the lifestyle that first became prevalent in the country that perfected industrialization, the United States.

What are they?

The DCs revolve around the Metabolic Syndrome (MetSyn), a set of signs of disease that include central obesity, excess fats (or fatty acids) in the blood, high blood pressure and excess blood sugar. The diseases that associate with the MetSyn include the biggest killers in the industrial nations: heart disease, cancer, diabetes, neurological illnesses such as Alzheimer’s and host of seemingly unrelated autoimmune conditions.
Many causes have been blamed for the spread of the DCs; including lack of exercise, wheat consumption, excess consumption of calories, carbohydrates, sugar, animal fats, meat, environmental toxins such as pollutants or pesticides, genetics (most implausibly) and any cluster of associations dreadfully referred to as ‘multi-factorial’.
Each of these proposed causal factors fails, in my view, to explain the pandemic. What I’d like to introduce is an alternative hypothesis, one that better fits the observed epidemiology and that has clearly-described mechanisms that explain much of the pathology for the DCs.
Since it started in America, we’ll start with America. In the late 1800s and early 1900s three events occurred almost simultaneously. First, a method of detoxifying cottonseed oil, which had been an industrial waste product of the cotton industry, was discovered . Next came a method to ‘hydrogenate’ cottonseed oil, or make it into a solid-at-room-temperature edible fat . Thus cottonseed oil and the hydrogenated derivative known as Crisco—introduced in 1911—entered the food supply in large quantities for the first time .
Simultaneously, America began to experience heart disease in large quantities. Previously a very rare condition, heart disease quickly became an epidemic, and the relatively new modern medical profession began to track it, and attempt to devise treatments . Similarly, cancer “control” became a concern, with the forerunner of the American Cancer Society being founded in 1913 .

The single biggest change in the American diet over the 20th century was the increase in seed oils, which increased 1000-fold

What changed?

America, a massive agricultural exporting nation, exported the fruits of the industrial revolution, which included new foodstuffs, including white wheat flour, sugar and vegetable fatty acids— so called to distinguish them from the traditional animal fatty acids that had been used as food since human evolution.

I will refer to vegetable fats (or fatty acids) as seed oils, to distinguish fats made from seeds such as cotton, corn, soy, rape and others from fatty acids made from fruit like olives or palm fruit. This will become important later on.

Wherever American industrially-produced foods were introduced, DCs soon followed. Although not generally well known now, a number of doctors and scientists recognized the impact of industrial foods on populations abandoning their traditional diets for what has become known as the Standard American Diet (SAD) . I prefer the acronym MAD, Modern American Diet, as the American diet prior to industrialization was a largely meat-based one, and did not produce the same diseases, and will use that throughout . Original graph is from Teicholz, N., The Big Fat Surprise, Simon & Schuster: New York, 2014.

Japan as the canary in the coal-mine

While there are many cases we could examine, perhaps the most telling was the MAD being introduced to post-WWII Japan. After the Japanese surrender, America took over the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, and used it for their base of operations. Unlike most other traditional cultures into which the MAD was introduced, Japan was a highly industrialized country. Yet Okinawans still ate a traditional diet that revolved around pork, yams, and fresh vegetables, and made them famous as one of the “Blue Zones”, a population with exceptionally long lifespans—in fact, the longest in the world .
What is less known is what happened after America took control. The first American fast-food restaurant opened in Okinawa, 9 years before Tokyo, to meet the American soldiers’ appetite. Okinawans also enjoyed American fast food and rapidly adopted it as their own . In that one generation, DCs exploded into Okinawa. Fathers attending the deaths of their sons became a common occurrence, with obesity, heart disease and cancer becoming common.
Hirome Okuyama, a Japanese scientist exploring the dramatic change in longevity in Okinawa, in 1996 published a paper pointing the finger clearly :

Dietary fatty acids – the N-6/N-3 balance and chronic elderly diseases. Excess linoleic acid and relative n-3 deficiency syndrome seen in Japan
“The age distribution of the survival rates of male Okinawans in 1990 is also interesting. The mortalities from all causes for the generations over 70 years of age were the lowest, whereas for those males less than 50 years old they were the highest among the 47 prefectures…”

In a single generation, Okinawa went from the lowest mortality in Japan to the highest

Seed-oils and refined flours brought DCs to Japan

This one incident clearly disproves a number of leading hypotheses on the emergence of DC. It’s clearly not genetic (although that’s a factor, especially in Japan), as gene networks underlying complex adaptations don’t change that quickly. It’s not just caused by total carbohydrates per se, as the Okinawans had a high carb diet with tubers, rice and fruit prior to Americans arriving .
Americans introduced much larger quantities of cheap refined flours which replaced the Okinawan carb sources. It’s not caused by meat, as the rest of Japan had a huge increase in meat consumption after WWII, and longevity increased, unlike in Okinawa. It’s not caused by animal fatty acids, as they were rapidly replaced by cheap seed oils imported from America—which introduced a program to ‘Americanize’ the Japanese diet.
It’s unlikely to be caused by saturated fatty acids, as consumption of saturated fat was and remains lower in Japan than it was or is in America, and there are no mechanisms to explain how natural saturated fatty acids causes disease. Environmental toxins are an unlikely explanation too, as, while Japan was industrialized, Okinawa didn’t experience a major change in that regard.
There’s also no possibility of a local environmental factor in Okinawa, as Japanese who moved to America saw a similar increase in DCs. And just to throw it out there, this also disproves the cholesterol-heart disease hypothesis, as cholesterol is not associated with heart disease in Japan, but with increased longevity .

Excess Linoleic Acid Syndrome (ELAS)

In my reading, the diseases that surround the MetSyn share common traits. Inflammation and insulin resistance are oft-cited, but perhaps more significant traits include mitochondrial dysfunction, apoptosis (cell death), necrosis (tissue death) and genetic damage.
These point to the common mechanism, named ELAS by Okuyama . I think it’s the best candidate for cause and best explanation of the MetSyn and related, chronic DCs.

What’s Linoleic acid?

Linoleic acid (LA) is an Omega 6 fatty acid (n-6 PUFA) fat which is considered essential to human and animal function. To head folks off at the pass, n-6 fatty acids are found in all natural foods, plants and animals, so this isn’t something you need to avoid entirely – it’s not possible, nor necessary.
There are three major kinds of fatty acids. LA is a polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) . It’s joined by monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) such as oleic acid (named for olive oil) and saturated fatty acids (SFA) such as stearic acid (named for steers, beef) or palmitic acid (named for palm oil). Fish oil is also a PUFA, but of the omega-3 variety (n-3 PUFA).
Omega 6 fatty acids are primarily made by plants, as are the similar n-3 PUFAs, and are concentrated up the food chain by animals eating those plants. The major sources of Omega 6 fatty acids in the MAD are oils refined from seeds and animals fed a high proportion of seeds.
PUFAs have traits which make them of interest: they’re highly susceptible to oxidation (rancidity), unlike MUFA or SFA, and they’re used throughout the body as building blocks for tissues and for various signaling functions, after being converted into other chemicals.

The rancidity of PUFAs is the root of the problem

When food goes rancid, it usually smells and taste bad because the MUFAs and PUFAs have decomposed into peroxides . Both n-6 and n-3 PUFAs are highly likely to go rancid. Humans don’t detect the rancidity of Omega 6 fatty acids particularly well, they smell slightly stale and people actually prefer the taste.
Contrast this to rancid n-3 PUFAs and imagine eating a rotten fish. No thanks! This is likely because concentrated n-6 foods were rare until the modern era .

The problems with rancid PUFAs

Both n-3 and n-6 PUFAs going rancid produce toxins, but the n-6 fatty acids produce worse toxins. Most notable of these—and best studied—are acrolein, HNE, and MDA; although there are many others. Collectively, they’re called oxidized linoleic acid metabolites (OxLAMs). Acrolein is the acute toxin found in cigarette smoke. HNE is the best marker of effects of ELAS, as it is only produced from n-6 fatty acids. All three are both produced in cooking or heating n-6 fatty acids, but are also produced in the body. How toxic are these products? Cooking with seed oils is the leading cause of lung cancer in non-smoking women in China .
The list of toxicities of these three chemicals is most impressive. Acrolein is a biocide, meaning toxic to all life. HNE and MDA are less bad than that but are cytotoxic (kill living cells), mutagenic (induce mutations in DNA) and genotoxic (destroy DNA). OxLAMs are also highly reactive, which means they can combine with other molecules in the body, inducing and stimulating malfunction .

A primary mechanism of ELAS

An increase in Omega 6 fatty acids consumption rapidly remodels the tissues in the body, as the fats are replaced throughout. In some tissues it happens within weeks, in others, like the human brain, it appears to take much longer . Increased n-6 consumption rapidly remodels cartilage, for instance, in all species studied, driving out the more stable omega-9 fatty acids (Oleic acid is a n-9 MUFA) . The same happens in mitochondria . As mentioned, mitochondrial dysfunction and DNA damage is a signature of the MetSyn and all related diseases. It’s seen in the fat cells in obesity, in the pancreas in diabetes and in the lining of the vessels of the heart in atherosclerosis, as well as in conditions of heart failure, fatty liver disease, neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, and, most notably, cancer.

OxLAMs trigger destructive chain reaction events

The mechanism for this is well-described, although not well-recognized. Excess n-6 linoleic acid (LA) consumption causes a remodeling of a molecule called cardiolipin in the mitochondria, the key energy-producing part of cells in all higher life forms. Cardiolipin comprised of LA is uniquely susceptible to oxidation compared to n-3 PUFAs, MUFAs or SFAs and this can happen spontaneously, as LA oxidation can be catalyzed by iron and cardiolipin is in constant contact with iron atoms in mitochondria. When cardiolipin oxidizes, a chain reaction can start. In vitro, so on the lab bench, this reaction continues until all cardiolipin is consumed, but luckily our body has countermeasures .
In this process OxLAMs are produced. HNE, for instance, causes other cardiolipin molecules to oxidize, thus potentially causing a self-sustaining chain reaction. Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) are produced in the reaction, which can also cause adjacent cardiolipin to oxidize .
However, OxLAMs are several orders of magnitude more damaging to the bodies than simple ROS . HNE itself can induce the production of ROS. Oxidized cardiolipin causes mitochondrial dysfunction, as mitochondria are impaired with oxidized cardiolipin .
What follows is mitochondria either collapsing, inducing apoptosis or necrosis . Apoptosis is seen throughout DCs—in cancer the cells are essentially ignoring the apoptotic signal and going rogue. The Warburg Effect noted in cancers is thought to be a cellular reaction to mitochondrial dysfunction in which the cells adopt an alternative energy pathway to better suit their uncontrolled proliferation.
Thomas Seyfried, who has contributed much to the field of cancer metabolism, notes that dysfunctional cardiolipin has always been observed in cancer cells so far . Necrosis is seen in late-stage DCs, such as atherosclerosis, cirrhosis of the liver, heart failure and Alzheimer’s.
Once loose in the cells, the OxLAMs rapidly propagate, in a process known as Oxidative Stress (OxStr). HNE and MDA are the primary markers used to measure OxStr. ROS cannot leave mitochondria which are well prepared for them, but OxLAMs, being water-soluble, rapidly distribute throughout the cells and beyond. OxLAMs are also a regular part of mitochondrial function: HNE induces mitochondria to downregulate as a basic negative-feedback mechanism.
Presumably this is to limit HNE creation and the spare the important antioxidant glutathione (GSH), as well as the aldehyde dehydrogenase enzyme (ALDH). GSH and ALDH are both important in protecting the body against evolutionarily-expected levels of HNE. Unfortunately for us, excess HNE can impair the function of both GSH and ALDH, thus allowing propagation of a runaway chain-reaction.
Decreased levels of GSH are a typical sign of excess production of HNE, and a dietarily induced deficiency in GSH production predisposes to the DCs . A genetic deficiency in ALDH, which is highly prevalent in Japan and China, predisposes to all DCs .

Tissue health as a function of levels of different fatty acids

Confusingly, assays of n-6 status in pathological tissues often show a lower level of n-6 than other fatty acids, and in these cases, addition of n-6 can actually improve function. This appears to be due to the chain reaction depleting LA or arachidonic acid (AA). The latter is a long-chain n-6 fatty acid produced in the body from LA. N-6 levels are lower, but HNE levels have risen as N-6 is converted into OxLAMs .
OxLAMs can bind to and alter the function of DNA, both in the mitochondrion and cell nucleus. In fact, they appear to be the leading cause of genetic damage, as the markers used for genetic damage are those generated by OxLAMs . Widespread generation of mutagenic and genotoxic chemicals in a live organism (in vivo) would go a long way towards explaining the genetic damage common in DCs.

OxLAMs are inflammatory

OxLAMs such as HNE directly induce inflammation, increasing inflammatory markers. Excess levels of LA-derived AA also induces inflammation, as it is used to build chemicals that send pro-inflammatory messages to the body. The mechanism of anti-inflammatory drugs such as aspirin, NSAIDs and Cox-2 inhibitors partially impairs this pathway.
It appears that a fundamental job of macrophages, an immune-system cell that attacks foreign cells, is to remove toxic OxLAMs from the tissues. Macrophage infiltration into tissue is seen in various DCs other than atherosclerosis, including obesity . One explanation is that the modifications made by OxLAMs to molecules cause those molecules to resemble Pathogen-Associated Molecular Patterns (PAMPs)—the molecules appear the same to macrophages as those on bacteria.
Antibodies for oxidized LDL cholesterol (OxLDL) exist and development of these antibodies for therapy against atherosclerosis has revealed the antibodies to be equally sensitive to bacteria-derived lipopolysaccharides and OxLDL .
Anti-cardiolipin antibodies are seen in several severe autoimmune diseases and are only sensitive to oxidized cardiolipin. Thus excess n-6 is a known cause of autoimmunity. It may be the fundamental cause of the increase in allergic diseases seen in Okinawa and around the world .

Specific disease pathologies

Cardiovascular Disease (CVD)

Goldstein and Brown received a Nobel Prize for discovering the LDL receptor . The next thing they tried to do was to induce the first stage of atherosclerosis, the conversion of macrophages into foam cells, which form the core of the atherosclerotic plaques that are thought to cause heart disease. They failed . Steinberg and Witztum then discovered that LDL must be modified through oxidation to cause macrophages to become foam cells

The nature of the substrate for lipid peroxidation, mainly the in lipid esters and cholesterol, is a dominant influence in determining susceptibility. As noted by Esterbauer et al. (52), there is a vast excess of in LDL, in relationship to the content of natural, endogenous antioxidants. The importance of the fatty acid composition was impressively demonstrated by our recent studies of rabbits fed a diet high in linoleic acid (18:2) or in oleic acid (18:1) for a period of 10 wk. LDL isolated from the animals on oleic acid-rich diet were greatly enriched in oleate and low in linoleate. This LDL was remarkably resistant to oxidative modification, measured either by direct parameters of lipid peroxidation

Esterbauer discovered HNE which is always present in atherosclerotic lesions in all species. Oxidized n-6 PUFAs comprise a large proportion of the fatty acids found in these plaques . OxLDL is the second-best known predictor of myocardial infarction, exceeded only by the OxLDL/HDL ratio (HDL is high-density lipoprotein) .
Other aspects of circulatory disease, such as varicose veins and erectile dysfunction, also display increased rates of OxStr, as determined by the presence of OxLAMs. HNE and oxLDL are active throughout the pathological process to create foam cells, induce macrophage entrance into the lining of the vessels and spur apoptosis, necrosis as well as DNA damage seen in atherosclerosis.
Steinberg and Witztum followed up their rabbit study with a human study, which confirmed the importance of LA in creating OxLDL . Other studies have confirmed the effect. The most successful CVD prevention trial ever, the Lyon Diet Heart Study, which produced a 70% reduction in CVD rates, specifically reduced the consumption of LA and increased the consumption of n-3 and n-9 fats.
It adds validation to the mechanism in humans but should be noted that the metabolites were not measured . Clearing HNE reduces atherosclerotic lesions in an animal model .
Similarly, oxidative activities of OxLAMs are seen in varicose veins, with these markers always being present at affected areas . Erectile dysfunction also appears to be a consequence of this process. Erectile dysfunction drugs, aside from the obvious effects, also have an antioxidant effect, and appear to prolong life in those with vascular diseases .

Cancer

Cancer is considered by many to not be a single disease but a wide array of diseases with, so far as we know, different causes. Viruses are a well-known cause of certain cancers, so it is safe to say that there is no single causal agent of cancer, however appealing that prospect would be.
Much of the pathological behavior of cancer cells can be explained by the effects of OxStr: mitochondrial dysfunction, genetic damage, and a shift to glycolysis despite the presence of oxygen. HNE damages and impairs the function of pyruvate dehydrogenase, the enzyme that allows substrates produced by glycolysis to enter the mitochondria .
This loss, combined with malfunctioning mitochondria emitting high rates of ROS and OxLAMs, may explain the metabolic dysregulation and anti-oxidant upregulation often seen in cancer cells.
Epidemiological work has shown low rates of cancer in populations eating traditional diets. In Asians, migration to industrialized countries increases breast cancer rates many-fold to the point where they reach Western levels .
LA in the diet is in fact required to induce cancer in animals experimentally. The cancer-promoting effects of LA increase as it increases in the diet. This effect plateaus at around 4.4% of total energy, well below levels of consumptions seen in industrial civilizations .
One of the hallmark traits of cancer cells is the seemingly random mutations pervading unstable and disorganized nuclear genomes. There can be tens of thousands of mutations, much fewer than that and sometimes none at all . For many cancers, the theory of it resulting from a single mutation doesn’t hold for most cancers. HNE and MDA both damage DNA in vivo and HNE preferentially damages the p53 gene. The latter is part of the body’s natural cancer-control mechanism and is defective in colorectal and hepatocellular cancers .

Obesity

Omega 6 fatty acids consumption appears to be involved in obesity through several pathways. HNE, which is elevated in obesity, directly induces fat-storage across species at an intra-cellular molecular level by inducing pathological behavior in adipose tissue. The latter then fails to differentiate normally, leading to engorged adipose cells typical of obesity . As LA converts to AA, AA upregulation leads to increased production of endocannabinoids anandamide and 2-AG.
Anandamide and 2-AG are the cannabinoids our body’s produce themselves and are so-called mimetics of trans-Δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) found in marijuana. Injection of endocannabinoids in animal models induces overeating, regardless of how full they feel . Elevated 2-AG is a typical feature in human obesity.
Several studies by a group at the NIH have shown that dietary LA modulates production and levels of 2-AG and can directly induce obesity . Blocking the endocannabinoid receptor using a drug prevents obesity and metabolic syndrome, in animals and humans; however the side-effects like increased rates of suicide are unacceptable, leading to withdrawal of the drug .

Diabetes

One long-observed medical observation is that insulin resistance (IR) accompanies sepsis, a condition caused by infection. OxStr precedes IR in humans and OxLDL antibodies acutely reduce IR in a primate model of atherosclerosis . So the PAMPs found in OxLDL appear to be preoccupy by the immune system, with IR maybe being a reaction to a perceived infection.
A reduced LA diet has been shown to reduce IR in two human studies; one measured OxLAMs, which were also reduced .
HNE injected into skeletal muscle cells directly induces IR in those cells . Mitochondrial dysfunction is a common feature of diabetes and the resulting shift in energy production may play a role in IR. LA directly induces hyperinsulinemia in vivo in animal models of beta cells (which produce insulin in the pancreas) and OxLDL directly causes beta-cell death.
High levels of blood sugar (hyperglycemia) is a central feature of type 2 diabetes. Shulman et al. argue an adipose-centric theory whereby hyperglycemia in type 2 diabetes results from uncontrolled adipose tissue lipolysis which feeds into liver metabolism as an excess of acetyl-CoA that will go on to spur further gluconeogenesis (the creation of new glucose).
Others postulate a liver-centric theory where insulin directly changes the liver’s insulin-to-glucagon ratio, lowering it and thus leading to further gluconeogenesis .
Regardless of the explanation one subscribes to about why type 2 diabetics have high blood sugars, high levels of HNE accompany dysregulation of gluconeogenesis. However, I’ve not seen a mechanism to explain it.
The relation between the food you eat and insulin secretion is represented by the food insulin index, an interesting metrics to watch if you are diabetic.

Neurological diseases

OxStr has become recognized as a major pathological factor in several severe neurological conditions, the incidence of which has been increasing along with increasing n-6 consumption, as seen with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS). As opposed to rat brains, human brains appear to have a rate-limiter for uptake of LA. AA however, which is only produced in small quantities from LA but concentrates in tissues, does pass the blood-brain barrier.
It’s been observed that AA increases prior to the onset of Alzheimer’s but decreases after its onset . AA is more subject to oxidation to HNE than LA is. HNE and other OxLAMs increase as AA decreases, perhaps indicating the self-perpetuating reaction is underway.
HNE is always found in the pathological areas of the brain. Injecting HNE in an animal model induces the formation of beta-amyloid plaques , the signature of Alzheimer’s disease.
People suffering from epilepsy have been prescribed high-fat ketogenic diets and often benefited from them immensely .
This is possibly because of direct neuronal effects of the diet on “ATP-sensitive potassium (KATP) channel modulation, enhanced purinergic (i.e., adenosine) and GABAergic neurotransmission, increased brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) expression consequent to glycolytic restriction, attenuation of neuroinflammation, as well as an expansion in bioenergetic reserves and stabilization of the neuronal membrane potential through improved mitochondrial function” .
However, these ‘clinical’ or ‘classical’ ketogenic diets have used highly inflammatory fats like hydrogenated soybean oil and have even been given as replacement shakes instead of a meal . This likely renders the treatment much less effective given how triggering (epileptogenic) inflammatory factors can be for epilepsy . This is why more modern incarnations of the diet tend to use a variety of non-inflammatory fats like butter, lard, coconut oil and olive oil which also happen to taste better.

Liver Disease

Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) is a new disease which only appeared when n-6 consumption levels reached the current high levels.
It mimics the effects of alcohol-induced Fatty Liver Disease (FLD). Like cancer, LA is required to induce FLD in animals. Very low levels of LA in the diet allows animals to consume up to 30% of energy as alcohol without pathology .
Total Parenteral Nutrition (TNP) is a feeding strategy in humans with damaged or malformed guts. Fatty liver is a common consequence in TNP and replacing LA-rich oils with fish oils cures the condition in human infants .
A small pilot study from Poland examining NAFLD in humans reduced the dietary levels of n-6 while providing the bulk of calories as carbohydrates.
OxLAMs were reduced, as was insulin, HOMA-IR, weight and NAFLD resolved in 100% of subjects . HNE directly induces the fibrosis seen in advanced liver disease and in other DCs.

Blindness

The leading cause of the blindness in the United States is Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD). This is probably the only condition where the causal role of n-6 has not only been established but is becoming widely recognized. It’s illustrative of principles that should likely be informative for treating other DCs. The retina of the eye is rich in PUFAs and like other tissues is affected by diet.
N-3 supplementation does not affect the progression of AMD unless it’s accompanied by low n-6 intake . That combination is preventative—an evolutionarily-appropriate balance of the fats appears to be crucial. N-6 fatty acids are very susceptible to oxidation by radiation, even visible light; blue light will induce retinal n-6 PUFAs to oxidize to highly toxic HNE.
This may also be the causal pathway behind sunburn and skin cancer.

And more!

Osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, asthma, diabetic side-effects such as kidney failure, chronic pain and my personal favorite, sunburn, all have pathological roots in ELAS. Even high rates of violence have been compellingly linked to ELAS.

Pathological cofactors

Several cofactors induce worsened OxStr is humans. In vitro, mixing LA, glucose and water at physiological concentrations induces peroxidation of LA into OxLAMs; the same has been shown in an in vivo animal model where increased n-6 feeding induced cardiolipin breakdown with subsequent induction of hyperglycemia causing mitochondrial collapse and cardiac necrosis .
This is seen in heart failure, now epidemic amongst humans. Alcohol, fructose, smoking, radiation and infection all increased levels of OxStr and as in FLD, the effects of OxLAMs may play a role in the pathology associated with those factors. If two factors contribute to a disease but the disease only appears when one is present, it’s logical to conclude that the required factor is causal.

A final note on epidemiology

The epidemiology around n-6 consumption and DCs reminds me of an old joke. A policeman sees a drunk crawling around under a street light.

“What are you doing?”
“I’m looking for my keys!”
“You lost them here?”
“No, I lost them over there.”
“Why are you looking here, then?”
“Because this is where the light is!”

Applying epidemiology to nutrition is a very daunting task. Conducting it in a modern, industrial society is much easier than going to a traditional society with no government statistics or wealthy research institutions.

So most of the epidemiology looking at food consumption is done in the industrial nations, which have mostly had high incidences of seed oils for a very long time, before nutritional epidemiology became a science

Seed oils appear to cease increasing rates of cancer appearance after they comprise 4.4% of energy, and saturate tissues at 5% .
Most industrial populations get more than 5% of energy from seed oils , so comparing one to another is to compare high to high, when what one wants to see is high vs low.
Nevertheless, there are a number of studies looking at DCs in populations with differing food patterns, and they strongly support the hypothesis, with the incidence of DCs in populations consuming fewer seed oils being either fractional or non-existent . This likely explains the rapid increase in DCs seen in countries eating MAD-type diets.

What’s missing?

According to several scientists I’ve read the work of or listened to lately, funding is missing. This is highlighted by Dr. Ron Krauss who works at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). According to him, the NIH have largely stopped funding clinical nutrition research.
That, combined with the pro-n-6 PUFA bias in the American nutrition establishment, means that it’s unlikely much research will be done in the U.S. Much of the research seems to be done in either second-tier US institutions or in Europe and Asia.
There’s a lot of lab work looking at mechanisms but not a lot of human interventional studies. The few that do exist however, like the Lyon Diet Heart Study, Christopher Ramsden’s work and the pilot LA metabolite intervention from Poland are all very compelling .
Research I would like to see on this question is an examination of PUFA status and OxLAM load in those few people still eating a traditional diet free from DCs, as well as interventional studies lowering n-6 PUFA.

Most such studies make no attempt to lower n-6, but just add n-3 on top of it. Due to competition between the two types of fatty acids and as seen in AMD, this is unlikely to be a successful strategy

It’s essentially the modern Japanese diet: excess n-6 but good n-3. This has not prevented DC in Japan, but they do have lower rates of some diseases, like cardiovascular diseases.

Conclusion

HNE was discovered in the early 1980s, many decades after seed oils were introduced. The relationship between n-6 and endogenous production of signaling molecules was discovered later. N-3 fatty acids became recognized as important after that.
Research into this topic was in the 10s of papers in the 1970s and has increased by 135-fold today. It’s a burgeoning field but one that appears to be very much under the radar. In reading through the literature, I have come to the conclusion that the case for ELAS as the root cause of Diseases of Civilization is overwhelming.
Personally, I came to this topic through Stephan Guyenet and his excellent Whole Health Source blog. After months of reading his posts and reading the papers he linked to, I decided to cut seed oils from my diet on the spur of the moment, standing in front of the salad dressings in a cafeteria.
My irritable bowel syndrome of 16 years disappeared in two days. My carb cravings disappeared as quickly, allowing me to discover an underlying wheat sensitivity. Sunburn became a thing of the past and as a pale blonde who had always assumed I was ill-adapted to life under the sun, this was revolutionary.
My excess weight dropped off, along with my now too-large pants one morning, never to return. And after six broken bones in two years, I haven’t broken one since.
I started reading on the topic because I wanted to understand what had caused my personal health recovery – and I guess because I like puzzles.

What to do about excessive n-6 consumption?

Avoid eating seed oils, foods containing seed oils—junk food and animals fed high levels of grains and seed oils, like pork and chicken. Don’t go crazy with the nuts. Eat some fish. But no, you can’t fix ELAS with extra n-3 fatty acids like fish oil, as the Japanese case demonstrates.
Except for fasting, this is the simplest health intervention ever, as it’s impossible to become deficient in n-6 fatty acids when eating whole foods. Even if a fraction of the diseases with pathological signs pointing to n-6 are proven, you’ll still be far better off.
William E.M. “Bill” Lands spent his scientific career studying the role of n-6 and n-3 fatty acids in the body. His conclusion, the title of an article written during his retirement, deserves to be the note to end on here :

Prevent the cause, not just the symptoms

13-minute read.

VOMA military camp leader Vova Vartanov about Armenian and Azerbaijani enclaves and non-enclave border villages

Vartanov led Armenian army units in Tavush during the first war of the 90's. Some of the Soviet-era Azerbaijani villages are located in this region.
VARTANOV (2023):: I participated in the liberation of the Tavush enclaves and nearby areas. Here are the enclaves and non-enclaves that were part of Soviet Azerbaijan.
Non-enclave villages in Tavush:
(1) Lower Voskepar (Aşağı Əskipara) is located near the church. Administratively speaking, the area above the Voskepar church, towards Mt. Odundagh, was considered an Azerbaijani settlement located in Soviet Azerbaijan.
(2) The Azerbaijani village Kherimli was located in front of the Armenian village Kirants. The Soviet state border passed through these villages.
(3) Bağanis Ayrum.
(4) Kizil Haji. It's not actually currently under Armenian control. It's a neutral territory.
Enclaves in Tavush:
(A) Yukhari Askipara (Upper Voskepar) with less than 500 hectares. We captured it on 8 June 1992 while capturing Mt. Odundagh.
(B) Villages Barxudarlı and Sofulu are located in the second enclave. This is the enclave that blocks our Shamshadin-Ijevan road.
If we exchange the enclaves, let's do it "all for all" because Azerbaijan holds even more Armenian lands. I don't think we should give them the enclaves but there is no major problem if we do. We could build new roads to bypass them. We could install border checks. There is no major problem if we adopt the right strategy. //
VARTANOV (2024): The bypass roads and more fortifications on the Armenian side of the border should have been built immediately after the 2020 war. We wasted time but it's not too late. It is possible to build fortifications near the Voskepar church to block potential threats coming from Azeri positions toward the nearby school and civilian houses. VOMA has already built fortifications around the Tigranashen (Karki) enclave so in the event that is also given to Azerbaijan, it will be surrounded and under our target. //
source, source, source, source,

historian-journalist Tatul Hakobyan about the history of Tavush borders, enclaves, and non-enclave villages

HAKOBYAN: I lived 35 years in the Yerevan-Noyemberyan area and every hill and rock is familiar to me. I've also meticulously studied the history of this region, the press, and the archives of events. So I'll share with you the story.
How was the current Tavush border formed? In 1918-20 there were 4 main disputed territories between Armenia and Musafat Azerbaijan: Artsakh (Karabakh), Syunik (Zangezur), Nakhijevan, and Tavush (Gazakh).
Syunik became part of Soviet Armenia after efforts by commander Andranik to save it.
Karabakh joined Soviet Azerbaijan. Bolshevik Russia was providing a lot more help to Bolshevik Azerbaijan.
Great Britain gave Nakhijevan to Armenia but we were only able to hold it for 2 months.
Tavush was called Gazakh back then. It had an Armenian- and Azeri-populated sections.
War was raging in the summer of 1920 in today's Berdavan-Chinari (Tavush) line, in almost every settlement. This is the area stretching from the AM-GE-AZ border triangle down to Chinari. The war was between independent Armenia and Bolshevik Azerbaijan. Russia was helping Azerbaijan against "Entente-ally" Armenia. The language used by Russia today against the "Soros-puppet" Pashinyan resembles the language used by Russia in 1920 against PM Hamo Ohanjanyan (ARF).
Armenia and Russia signed an agreement on 10 August 1920, the first AM-RU diplomatic document, to reach a solution around the disputed territories of Gazakh. Azerbaijan was not a separate signatory because they were under the control of Russia. All Armenian-populated or predominantly Christian villages remained part of Armenia. Muslim or Turkic villages joined Bolshevik Azerbaijan.
In 1920 the fiercest battles were taking place in Voskepar. It was surrounded on two sides. On the left, there was Upper Voskepar (Yuxari Askipara), which later became an Azeri enclave. On the right, there was Lower Voskepar (Asagi Askipara). Nevertheless, the Armenian army was able to take control of the following: Parakhli (Fərəhli) located between Koti and Berkaber; Məzəm, right next to the reservoir; Quşçu Ayrım, slightly north of Məzəm; Baghanis Ayrum; Upper and Lower Voskepar (Yuxari and Asagi Askipara).
The Armenian army was able to briefly take control of those areas and also Mt. Odundagh, which is under Azeri control today. Bolshevik Russia began to help Bolshevik Azerbaijan just as they did in 1991. The Armenian army's success was short-lived.
Back to the 10 August 1920 Armenia-Russia agreement. The regions of Syunik, Artsakh, and Nakhijevan were declared occupied by Russia under the condition that Russia would not give those regions to a third party. As for Tavush, they drew a line that almost exactly resembled the Soviet Armenia-Soviet Azerbaijan administrative border. There were always disagreements between Armenians and Azeris during the USSR on the use of pasture and nearby lands, but the administrative border was more or less accepted.
Speaking of Baghanis Ayrum and Lower Voskepar (Asagi Askipara). They were part of Azerbaijan during the USSR. After the independence, the Armenia-Azerbaijan war did not actually begin from Yeraskh [Nakhijevan border] as most people believe. You might have seen videos of heavy equipment being used in Yeraskh-Sadarak, but that is not where it began. The first bloody clashes were in Tavush's Voskevan-Baghanis and Baghanis Ayrum-Lower Voskepar-Upper Voskepar sections. Don't confuse Armenian Baghanis with Azeri Baghanis Ayrum. Also, don't confuse Armenian Voskepar with Azeri LoweUpper Voskepar.
The Ijevan-Georgia highway was passing through this region and crossed into Azerbaijan in several sections. Azeris would frequently open fire at Armenian vehicles and kidnap people. The clashes began in 1990 and Armenian volunteer groups took control of these Azeri areas and villages.
QUESTION: Were the 4 villages mentioned by Pashinyan yesterday about the enclaves?
HAKOBYAN: No. Even the journalists are often mistaken here. These 4 border villages are:
(1) Baghanis Ayrum. It's in ruins today but the [Azeri] graves have been preserved.
(2) Asagi Askipara. It was the largest of four villages with a population of 700.
(3) Khreyrimli. When Armenian village Kirants ends and you reach the bridge, look left and you'll see a few ruins. That's Khreyrimli. It had only 15-20 houses.
(4) Kizil Hajily (Qızılhacılı). The Armenian population hasn't seen this village at all. Its geography is not even strategically important. It was a village east of the Armenian village of Berkaber [east of the reservoir]. It was a tiny village. Today it's a neutral zone with the presence of Armenian and Azeri soldiers. The two armies are positioned very close to each other.
Those are the 4 villages. They aren't enclaves.
Here are the enclaves:
(A) Yuxari Askipara (Upper Voskepar), located west of the Armenian Voskepar. It's surrounded by forests. As for how this enclave was formed, for some reason, it's not being widely discussed by our historians. We do have Hamo Sukiasyan, one of the best historians of modern times, who sets aside emotions and presents historical facts instead of "wishes".
(B) Sofulu and Barkhudarlu (two small villages in one enclave). Not many Armenians have seen this enclave. You might have seen two Azeri villages on the right and left sides if you've ever traveled from Azatamut to the former Shamshadin region.
(C) Tigranashen. Azeris call this Karki but it is not the original name. Before Karki, it was part of Soviet Armenia and had another name. Azeris named it Kari after it was attached to Nakhijevan.
Armenia, in turn, has the enclave Artsvashen controlled by Azerbaijan. It was captured by Azeris in 1992. Some people continue to believe there was an agreement to "exchange" it with Azerbaijan. I cannot confirm or deny this.
QUESTION: Which maps are the most beneficial for Armenia for the demarcation?
HAKOBYAN: Armenia agrees to any map as long as it's a whole map from the same year period. In contrast, Azerbaijan wants to use 33 different maps for demarcation. Why? In 1922-36 when the three republics of South Caucasus were part of the USSR under Transcaucasian Federation, there were many disputed villages and territories between Armenia and Azerbaijan. I've said earlier about disputes for pasture, hills, trees, etc. USSR would often exchange territories in an attempt to resolve these disputes. Today Azerbaijan presents several maps that show these exchanges.
For example, they could present a map showing that the territory near Nerkin Hand was once part of Soviet Azerbaijan. Armenia will respond by showing a record stating that the area was transferred to Azerbaijan because another piece of territory was taken from Armenia and given to Azerbaijan elsewhere. Azerbaijan's strategy is to demand the territories that were, at some point, part of Soviet Azerbaijan, without returning to Armenia the areas that were transferred to Azerbaijan during the swap. The government is making concessions on these 4 villages because they are afraid of a new war, just as social media warriors who love to swing a sword become afraid and suddenly disappear whenever a war breaks out.
There were many clashes on the AM-AZ border during the USSR but the Soviet press never covered it because everyone was supposed to live as "brothers". There were clashes from Noyemberyan to Meghri. In 1984 there was a very serious incident on Dovegh-Kemerli section, near Voskepar. The state border passes near the church in Voskepar. If you look at the direction of the church you'll see 10 half-finished houses; they were built by Armenians. Just 5 meters away you'll see the ruins of Azerbaijani houses of Asagi Askipara residents. Armenian civilians built those 10 houses as a "border" to prevent Azerbaijani incursion. Those houses were never finished, and then the war began. Some of the owners are currently in Russia, I suppose. The Azeri houses are also in ruins.
In 2021 [after the war] Armenia agreed to allow Russian border agents to patrol the AM-AZ border in Tavush. Russians built a base on the road passing through Voskepar. Russia wants to control the highway traffic. It will look like the Vorotan-Shurnukh section. Russia will once again "protect" Armenia. Maybe they will protect it the same way they protected the Lachn corridor.
Everyone is in search of a traitor. "Nikol davajan", "No, davajan is Kocharyan and Serj", but no one talks about solutions because substantive discussion doesn't embrace arrogant patriotism.
It's all about the current strength of the army. It is important to avoid a major war right now. Every time we act cocky and get into a war, we scream for Nikol to stop the war. In 2020 the Armenian army was ready for a war. Is it ready today? I don't have the answer to that question.
Here is what Armenia must do right now: build a bridge near village Kirants because the one we use today falls under Azerbaijani territory; re-route 3 sections of the Voskepar road to maintain the direct Ijevan-Noyemberyan link; build the army. We cannot have diplomatic successes as long as the army is weak. //
source, source, source,

NATO leader visits Armenia, praises domestic reforms and foreign policy

PASHINYAN: We hope the new format of the Armenia-NATO partnership, the Individually Tailored Partnership Program, will be approved soon. It is important for Armenia to strengthen its resilience and defense.
We expect the support of the international community, including NATO, to the AM-AZ peace process.
Armenia also has special relations with Iran, therefore Armenia's partnership with NATO cannot be directed against Iran. //
STOLTENBERG: Today, Armenia and Azerbaijan have a chance to achieve lasting peace. I urge the two countries to reach an agreement that will pave the way for normalization of relations. NATO supports Armenia's sovereignty and territorial integrity and its peaceful aspirations.
I appreciate the approach of the Armenian government towards the AM-AZ peace process.
We support your sovereignty and territorial integrity and we also support your efforts to develop a more independent foreign policy, which we think is important. I personally admire your leadership, your commitment, and what you have done to strengthen democratic institutions and the rule of law in Armenia.
Thank you for sending humanitarian aid to Ukraine. I welcome Armenia's solidarity with Ukraine and I call on all partners to do everything in their power to prevent Putin from winning this war of aggression.
Today we discussed the domestic reforms. I welcome the fact that you're working to bolster democratic oversight over the armed forces, including as part of a NATO program.
You have also shown commitment to fighting corruption and strengthening democratic institutions. Thank you for your work towards building a brighter future for Armenia and the region. //
video, source, source, source, source,

interview with NATO chief

REPORTER: What are the main messages of your visit to the South Caucasus?
STOLTENBERG: Peace in the South Caucasus is important for its stability and peace in Europe. There are disagreements between Armenia and Azerbaijan, that's why we want to sit down and discuss lasting peace.
REPORTER: [About Armenia's foreign policy.]
STOLTENBERG: Any country has the right to choose its foreign policy. NATO never forces any country to do anything against their will but we are ready to deepen our partnership with Armenia.
REPORTER: How can NATO help Armenia?
STOLTENBERG: Cyber-defense, modernization of security and defense institutions, and reforms in other areas. My meeting with Pashinyan was very helpful. He is a strong leader and a strong voice for democracy and peace. We had a good conversation.
REPORTER: [Peace process and the threat of war.]
STOLTENBERG: Peace is realistic. Some core principles have been agreed. NATO is not a mediator but we support those principles, such as the respect for territorial integrity. Norway and Sweden were at war for many hundreds of years and to this day some border issues remain in place but we live in peace as sovereign and independent nations. The same happened with France, Germany, and the UK. My message to Baku and Yerevan is to use this opportunity, overcome the differences, and agree to lasting peace.
REPORTER: About Armenia-NATO cooperation.
STOLTENBERG: We are close to agreeing to a new Partnership Program. It will form a new basis for how we work together, and how NATO can support Armenia to develop its defense and security policy, help reform institutions, and help with cybersecurity and demining. We regard Armenia as an important partner and I welcome the strong leadership in Yerevan.
source,

Armenia and UK discuss bolstering of defense cooperation

Armenia's Ambassador met the UK's Minister of State Defense. The Ambassador emphasized the importance of continuing to develop collaboration with the UK, particularly in defense.
ARMENIA: There is progress in AM-UK bilateral cooperation. There were defense consultations between Defense Ministers late last year.
source,

ruling party accuses pro-Russia opposition of "discrediting" EU border observers and supporting Armenia's membership in the Russian Union

Context and debate in March 15 news. The government wants to ratify the observers' mandate to grant them diplomatic immunity, tax waivers, and some privileges. Many privileges were already in place and this resolution is largely a formality.
The opposition accused the ruling party of leaving room for Turkish observers to join EU observers in the future, while the ruling party dismissed the claim as fearmongering: "Armenia has the right to accept or reject observers."
During a Monday parliament discussion, the ruling MP accused the opposition of "joining Azerbaijan and its allies" to "discredit" the EU mission. (Moscow has been highly critical of the mission.)
RULING MP: It all makes sense now. It's out in the open. A journalist recently asked the ranking member of [Robert Kocharyan's] "Armenia" faction whether he believes Armenia should join the Russia-Belarus Union. His answer: I'm not ready to answer that question right now, however, perhaps from the security standpoint we need to be part of a larger union. Are my colleagues still surprised that the opposition is actively discrediting the EU mission? Will you be surprised if tomorrow you see rallies with demands for Armenia to join the [Russian] Union, perhaps packaged under another name?
In 2021 you were trying to convince us that we "promised" a corridor to Azerbaijan even though we knew we didn't. Earlier this year you criticized Pashinyan for not giving the Zangezur Corridor to Azerbaijan [in a bid to save Artsakh], and today you are speaking in favor of Armenia's membership to a Russia-Belarus Union.
An opposition MP warned a government representative that "You will be personally held accountable". What are you insinuating? Is it true that ARF is cooking bombs in its basements? How many were arrested recently under the suspicion of terrorism? We will not be intimidated. Armenia is the one that will threaten the terrorist groups. They will spend their lives in very cold and dark places. //
The opposition accused the ruling party of being the agents of Turkey and Azerbaijan.
RULING MPs: Speaking of us being "foreign agents". Oleg Kalugin was a spy chief at the Soviet KGB and wrote a book. On page 221 Kalugin writes how in the 1970s the KGB began to fill the ranks of ARF with its agents and practically took complete control of its administration. This was a continuous process, according to Kalugin. As soon as the weather gets warmer this year, you are going to see opposition rallies with two demands, repackaged and served under different slogans: give a corridor and join the Russia-Belarus Union. And speaking of agents, it was Robert Kocharyan's voice in a leaked audio message begging [Putin] to help him get out while admitting that he entered politics with the advice of [Putin]. //
source, source,source, source, source, source,

former president Levon Ter-Petrosyan's party urges Pashinyan not to take the EU path, citing "serious risks"

ANC PARTY: Armenia should not seek EU candidacy as long as there is a conflict between the West and Russia, Iran and the US. Look at the sufferings of Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova because of their steps taken at inappropriate times. //
source,

there is a consensus within the ruling party on the EU path: ruling party MP Taguhi Ghazaryan

REPORTER: Is there a consensus within the party around EU candidacy? Some lower-ranking MPs have made it seem as if there is no consensus.
GHAZARYAN: There is consensus within the party and I believe the public also agrees that Armenia has European aspirations. Pashinyan urged the public to discuss it actively. However, how fast this integration will take place is another topic. Increasing standards in Armenia and having peace in the region will be crucial. And we need to realize that raising standards is being done for us, not Europe. For example, we should discuss the reduction of potentially carcinogenic elements in our food with the understanding that it's necessary first and foremost for Armenia.
source,

Pashinyan congratulates Putin on election win

PASHINYAN: Dead Vladimir Vladimrich, accept my congratulations on your re-election as the President of Russia. I hope the dialogue in all areas of bilateral interests will develop for the benefit of the people of Armenia and Russia. I wish you health, happiness, and success in your activities. //
P.S.
Do not assassinate me.
source,

Armenian banks will join the sanction against Russia's MIR payment card

The U.S. introduced sanctions on MIR cards in February.
RUSSIAN MEDIA: The Armenian banks have decided to stop accepting MIR cards starting March 30. The only exception is [Russian] VTB's Armenian subsidiary.
CENTRAL BANK: Commercial banks of Armenia independently decide which payment systems to cooperate with, based on their risk management strategies, including those related to sanctions.
CENTRAL BANK rep.: We want Armenia to become a center for foreign securities trading. We have to follow all the requirements, both on anti-money laundering and sanctions. The Republic of Armenia has not joined the sanctions against Russia, but observes them. //
Armenia exits the list of countries and regions that accept MIR: Kazakhstan, Belarus, Venezuela, Vietnam, Abkhasia, South Osethia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Cuba.
source, source, source, source, source,

authorities suspend the operation of Tashir and Sumarlu malls after inspectors discover fire and safety hazards

Sumalu exploded two years ago because of improper storage of fireworks.
source,

customs agents discovered an attempt to smuggle 7,500 boxes of cigarettes from Iran hidden inside cement clinker: VIDEO

Truck drivers were told to dump 20 tons of clinker on the ground so the authorities could collect the cigs.
video, source,

new Armenian cargo airlines Hayways receives IATA and ICAO codes

It will be able to make international flights with the newly acquired Boeing 737-400SF.
source,

"looks like a fun party"

video,

Accurate as of experimental build 2024-03-18-1108, version 9733666. Some mods are used, but shouldn't impact this feature. TL;DR of some basic tips near the bottom.
I sometimes make extremely OP characters and spawn in a debug pocket universe to have effectively near-infinite carry capacity, just to mess around. I was drawn to auto-pickup because of this, and have struggled a lot in using this clunky system effectively, partly because I couldn't find any decent guides beyond various posts from people who had specific problems that were usually then successfully solved by others, so here's a guide from my own experience and testing. This is not based on reading the code, and so it may not be 100% accurate.
So first, what is auto-pickup? In short, you can get the game to automatically pick up nearby items as you pass by similarly to auto-butcher for nearby corpses and auto-forage for nearby plants. There's some various options in general options for it, but I'll be focusing on the Auto pickup manager which has its own menu.
There's 2 auto-pickup lists. a Global list, which is saved and available between all characters and all worlds, and a Character list, which is only saved to that specific character. If you 'e'xamine an item, or use the 'i'nventory to select an item, you can directly add an item to the Character list using '+', and likewise remove it using '-'. I advise against just adding an item to the list this way without further modification, as several factors can result in the items not being picked up.
Items on either list can be 'm'oved to the other, appearing at the bottom of the list when done so. You can also 'd'isable or 'e'nable a line on the list if you temporarily don't want to have it considered, and you can specify whether you are specifically including or excluding an item from the list, in which case the order matters: the higher the line number is numerically, the more priority it has, with the Character list also having priority over the Global list. If an item qualifies for more than 1 line in your lists, the line with the highest priority determines if it is included or excluded from your auto-pickup. You can manually 'a'dd and 'r'emove lines to a list, or even 'c'opy a line to make minor changes. You can change a line's priority in the list using '+' and '-'. Finally, and honestly the most important, you can 't'est a line's filter to see specifically what items it impacts, which can help with spelling and wildcard issues.
Alright, with those basic controls out of the way let's get to the actual filters. Unfortunately, Auto-pickup seems to use its own filter mechanics unlike most of the rest of the game's item filters. You cannot search by 'c:'ategory, 'q:'uality, or even hidden 'f:'lags. You can only use the item's actual literal name or by 'm:'aterial. You can use '*' as a null-to-infinite-length wildcard, when not using the material as a filter, allowing you to, for example, filter by "*cig*" for cigars, several types of cigarettes, and various related items.
Now, what do I mean by literal name? Let me give you an example. Let's say you want to pick up all MREs. a fresh and sealed MRE's actual name is "MRE package > 5 food (sealed) / 6 items". Its literal name is "MRE package > 5 food (sealed) / 6 items". Yes, auto-pickup's filter does search through that hidden text as well, so if you were to search for "MRE package > 5 food*", it would never find anything, because you didn't include the hidden text in your search. using wildcards can help with this, but depending on its use, you might need to add extra items to an exclusion afterwards.
Speaking of wildcards, due to the fact that the filter uses literal names, you may accidentally grab unintended items. If you were to have a filter for "*dollar*", you'd find that the 't'est will show you 23 results: 7 bills, 7 straps, 7 bundles, and 2 coins. all things you'd want to loot if you like collecting money like this. However, because the filter starts with a wildcard, it will also pick up any containers where that item is the only content, because the container's name will likely be something like "stylish wallet > one-dollar bill", which does pass the filter, and thus gets picked up. You can add a filter to exclude all "*wallet*", but it's not foolproof, and non-wallet containers, including corpses, may be grabbed if any filter that starts with a wildcard is the only content.
As such, it's best to not use a wildcard at the start for items you wish to include unless you're also willing to manually exclude several items as well. I personally have a 21-long list dedicated just to currencies: "cash card", 12 various coins without the use of wildcards, "merch*", and all 7 denominations of bills ending in a wildcard like "one-dollar*". Meanwhile, it's best to start any container exclusions with a wildcard to ensure that containers within containers are properly excluded, like: "*wallet*", "*corpse*", and "*cardboard*".
Filtering to include containers is also its own pain. I don't even know if I'm 100% correct on how containers work, but I've tested a fair bit using plastic bags (non-rigid, non-liquid), plastic bottles (rigid, liquid), foldable plastic bottles (non-rigid, liquid), and straw baskets (rigid, non-liquid), and this is what I've found:

1. If a container is included on your list without a wildcard at the end, it will only be picked up when it is just the empty container without a whitelist. Because the filter uses the literal name, the whitelist is counted as "+".
   
2. If it does have a wildcard at the end, and the contents are not specifically excluded elsewhere in your list, the container will be picked up with its contents still contained.
   
3. In almost all situations, if the contents were specifically excluded, they will be spilled to the ground when the container is picked up.
   
4. If the container is rigid, the contents are excluded, but the container has a whitelist for the contents, and there's more than 1 non-stacking but identical item, then the container will spill all but 1 of its contents, keeping 1 within itself as it gets picked up.
   

What do I mean by that final one? liquids and some items like sand are stackable, so they are actually just 1 item with a different number at the end, and the entire thing will be spilled out when the container is picked up. Meanwhile, if you want just the small plastic bottle that has 19 multivitamins in it, but not the multivitamins, the container you pick up will contain exactly 1 multivitamin in it. Why? heck if I know. I do know that if you drop it afterwards and then auto-pickup again, you'll pick up just the container. meanwhile, if you exclude the rigid container but include the contents, then that 19 multivitamin example will have you pick up 18 and 1 multivitamin in the same go.
Finally, thanks to the wildcard, you can also do reverse filters. If your very first line is to include "*", then you will pick up everything, and thus the rest of your list should mostly be exclusions. I did this for a while, and I gotta say, I do not recommend it, at least not while the filtering uses the system it uses that can only search by name and material.
So, some general tips:

1. You can add useless lines and disable them to better visually sort your filters (idea stolen from Ampersand55's year old post, thanks)
   
2. Try not to start any filters with a wildcard unless you're willing to add exclusions further down the priority for specific types of containers or to manually deal with them later.
   
3. The filter will use the item's literal name. So items that can be cold, frozen, or hot need to have that accounted for in the name. So instead of "clean water", use "clean water*". Likewise, you can exclude old, rotten, or filthy items by excluding "*(old)*", "*(rotten)*", and "*(filthy)*" respectively, or include sealed items with "*(sealed)*". This also means that "cash card"s and maps like "trail guide"s don't need the value or town name, just the basic name will do. You can see an item's literal name (minus hidden color text) by 'e'xamining it at the top. Hidden text can be found by adding the item to your Character auto-pickup list in the 'e'xamine menu.
   
4. If the item often has differently colored text in its name, use wildcards between color changes, as the hidden text controlling the colors is included.
   
5. Items with charges, ammo, or damage do not include them in their names. Additionally, ammo cannot typically be grabbed from guns or magazines, and must be grabbed manually, while tools with batteries will not allow you to grab the batteries directly if they're in any other container. So you'll still need to manually collect ammo/magazines from unwanted guns, and unless you're dismembering all your corpses, batteries from unwanted electronics.
   
6. If auto-pickup is on, the game wont care if you're on a time limit, it's going to waste your time picking up items. It will warn you if you spot or hear anything potentially dangerous, assuming you haven't disabled those warnings.
   
7. Regardless of your exceptions or whitelists, if you try to pick up an item that needs a container, the container is coming with it. Expect a lot of liquid containers and the occasional wallet/purse/clothing depending on your filters.
   
8. Material filters can be very powerful. filters for the following materials can be very useful for food: "vegetable matter", "fruit matter", "junk food", "alcohol", and "nut". meat is more difficult as it includes raw and tainted foods unless you specifically exclude them, while the other materials are easier to filter for. Likewise, "gold", "silver", "platinum", "titanium", "gemstone", and "diamond" are good material filters for greedy hoarders, though make sure you put them after any (filthy) exclusions, otherwise you'll miss a ton of them.
   
9. There is a 30-character limit for manually inputting a filter. Adding an item via 'e'xamine will bypass this limit, and while you can then trim the resulting filter, you cannot add to it until it's below the 30-character limit again.
   
10. You are able to bypass certain restrictions using auto-pickup. Duct tape normally forces you to collect it with its cardboard roll, which makes realistic sense, but auto-pickup will bypass this requirement, letting you take the duct tape without the roll. It also seems to allow picking up mutation items like Talons, despite you not being able to directly put them down afterwards.
    
11. Unless you are manually excluding individual types of containers, you're going to pick up a lot of pill and drink bottles by accident.
    

That's about it. If you have any auto-pickup specific questions, feel free to ask here, even if it's just the best way to filter for specific items. I will say, as silly as it can be to make an OP character like I sometimes do, I would advise against it. Spices like salt, some powdered chemicals, and a lot of crafting materials are non-stacking but come in large quantities. This doesn't just waste in-game time from moving the items, it also wastes your time since the game is not currently set up to handle such large numbers of items, even if you shove them all in individual body bags for storage. Crafting takes 10x as long, if not longer, due to the sheer quantity of items nearby, your inventory is slow to open and even slower to make changes in, and it skyrockets your save file size immensely. I would regularly hit nearly 1gb+ save files in just 2-3 cities worth of loot, because of my hoarding tendencies and how the save seems to handle them. You don't need the 10k+ plastic chunks you got from those couple of plastic golems.
My greatest wish is that auto-pickup gets the same filtering options every other inventory '/' filter gets eventually. I may get bored enough to try my hand at making the change myself, given my limited programming experience, but I'll focus on the list for now.
Edit 1: Further examinations. I mentioned earlier about how ammo and charges cannot be auto-pickup'ed from within their respective tools, but that there's some exceptions. I believe I now know what the exception is: batteries cannot be looted from their tools while the tool is in another container. As such, if you want to loot a lot of batteries, you should be dismembering corpses to have corpse-dropped tools be loose on the floor, or if you're insane like me, auto-pickup all the corpses into your pocket universe, which drops most of their loot to the floor, and a 2nd pass will handle the tools. This also explains why sometimes I need a 2nd pass for currencies, as it seems that when a container is picked up by itself, its contents are not impacted by auto-pickup until the 2nd time you pass by.
Discovered this after a bit of testing when I went through an electronics store and found I was looting batteries from tools I know I couldn't while they were on corpses.
Edit 2: So, looks like looting sealed containers doesn't always work the way you expect. MRE meals often don't have a material assign to them, they're just blank foodtypes. As such, if you're not specifically including the food in your list, you may often find yourself picking up empty yet inexplicably still sealed MRE containers. There's no easy fix for this aside from including terms unique to MREs if you want to avoid grabbing just empty sealed MREs, but doing this often requires starting with a wildcard, which I've already mentioned you should try to avoid when possible. "*entree" will cover most bases, but if you look at the .json for mre meals, you'll see a good chunk of non-entrees don't have a consistent pattern and will need to be added manually for each.

First Previous Next
Isabella was staring, shocked, at her phone.
Enrique had sent her a text.
She felt her soul go cold as she read, "Mike killed himself."
She quickly responded, "Where are you?"
She set her phone down on the couch next to her and sighed. She hadn't suspected that Mike was suicidal.
I should have known… He didn't respond to my text today… I could have done more… Maybe he wouldn't have done it if I had reached out in person sooner or if I had stayed with him yesterday morning.
Isabella knew that it was ridiculous to think it was her fault or that she could have somehow stopped him, but she couldn't stop those thoughts from running amok in her head.
Her phone buzzed.
She picked it up and read, "The kings shilling."
She rapidly responded. "Do you need to be alone?"
Isabella searched for the address. It was a pub in downtown London, about fifteen minutes from campus.
"No"
"I'm omw."
Isabella got up and grabbed her jacket on her way to the door. She pulled the hood on as she walked out into the night.
Of course, it's raining…
Isabella pushed open the door of the old brick pub and wished that Enrique had better taste. The interior was dimly lit and filled with a blue haze. It reeked of cigarettes and stale beer. Isabella held back a cough and cursed Kael medicine for removing the consequences of smoking. The room was filled with a buzz of drunk conversation, and a TV somewhere deeper inside was blaring a late-night sports show. She felt crunches beneath her feet as she ventured deeper inside the pub; the floor was littered with peanut shells. The wood-paneled walls were barely visible beneath hundreds of photographs of British soldiers from the Zulu War to the Kaelithi invasion. The rest was decorated with sports memorabilia. It was a curious sight; in one spot, a signed football jersey was haphazardly hung next to a faded German naval ensign. There was a 400-year-old musket mounted above the strange pair and a picture of a Cold War tank crew beside their centurion below. The bar was empty save for Enrique and the barkeep.
The barkeep was a portly and gnarled old man with skin so red it appeared steamed; he was wearing a dirty white tank top with a brown apron that had seen better days. He was pouring Enrique another shot of tequila with sausage-like fingers. His bright red and hairy arms were contrasted with the blue of fading tattoos. Without looking up at Isabella, the barkeep asked in a hearty voice that carried over the drunken racket, "What can I do you for, love?"
Isabella pulled out the stool beside Enrique and asked, "Do you have any Peroni?"
The barkeep looked up and laughed. "I don't carry none of that foreign shite. We have Newcastle, Stella, Guinness, Carling, and me own brew o' stout."
These barbarians and the piss they call beer. Half of those were foreign anyways…
She sighed, "Dealers choice."
The red-faced barkeep beamed at her with crooked and stained teeth as he grabbed a filthy-looking pint glass and cheerfully proclaimed, "Stout it is!" He wiped the glass with a disgusting rag draped over his shoulder. Isabella gulped. It almost certainly left the glass dirtier than it was before. Isabella visibly shuddered as he filled the glass to the brim with a vile brew so brown it was closer to black. He slapped a circular piece of hardened leather down on the bar in front of her and sat the glass atop it with a thunk, spilling a little on Isabella's sleeve.
"Enjoy."
She took a sip of the vile drink in front of her, expecting to gag.
Her brows raised in surprise. Hmmph… That's actually good. She turned to Enrique and said, "How are you feeling?"
He looked at her, paused momentarily, and then gloomily mumbled, "I'm okay, I guess…" He clearly was not okay. Enrique was a wreck. His eyes were rimmed with red, and there were bits of bar peanuts in his regularly immaculate curly black beard. He was already drunk enough to lack coordination in his prosthetic limbs. Enrique had lost both his legs above the knee, his left arm at the shoulder, and his right arm at the elbow in the war.
Isabella grabbed Enrique's shoulder and said, "I'm sorry. I know how much he meant to you."
The barkeep subtly leaned in, pretending to clean a glass.
Enrique sighed and gulped down his shot. Isabella set down her beer. "What happened?"
"He shot himself. Didn't leave a note."
"I'm so sorry."
Enrique put his head in his hands. "I should have done something…"
The barkeep interjected. "Don't think like that. Everyone has to make a choice to live, and it's nobody else but theirs to make. I've had a few old comrades take the easy way out. All you can do is pour one out for em' and celebrate their life."
Enrique peered through the bottom of his empty glass and hesitantly said, "I guess so."
The barkeep pulled an old bottle of whiskey from the wall and started filling glasses.
The corpulent barkeep interrupted the argument over a controversial call the rest of the patrons were having by shouting, "OI! C'MERE YOU BASTARDS! A ROUND ON THE HOUSE FOR A FALLEN COMRADE!"
The twenty or so other occupants let out a restrained cheer and stumbled over to the bar to get their drinks. After everyone had a glass in hand, the barkeep handed Enrique a second glass and said, "Give us a toast."
Enrique stood up and raised the glasses high. "Mike Anderson!"
"Mike Anderson!"
Enrique downed one glass while he dumped the other on the floor. A song began playing. The regulars sang along.
"As I walked by the dockside one evening so fair,
To view the salt waters and take in the salt air,
I heard an old fisherman singing a song,
Oh, take me away boys me time is not long,
Wrap me up in me oilskin and jumper,
No more on the docks I'll be seen,
Just tell me old shipmates, I'm taking a trip mates,
And I'll see you all on Fiddlers Green.
Now Fiddlers Green is a place I've heard tell,
where the fisherman go, if they don't go to hell…"
Dreki and Mike were in the gym that had been haphazardly thrown together in an empty corner of the cargo hold.
Mike stood inside the human power rack with a loaded barbell on his back. He had 250kg on the bar, although he was really only lifting 200kg due to the ship using Kael gravity. Dreki was spotting him.
Dreki shouted, "COME ON! ONE MORE."
Mike took a deep breath and then another. He was seeing stars and on the verge of puking.
Fuck it.
Mike braced his core and went down again for his eighth rep. His hamstrings mashed into his calves in the bottom position, and after a second's pause, he slowly went back up. His face turned beet red, and veins bulged out of his neck. Spit flew from Mike's mouth as he screamed in exertion.
“GUUUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH”
Mike grinded his way up. He took two painfully slow steps forward and reracked the weight. Mike fell to his knees, gasping for air and lightheaded.
Dreki leaned down and slapped him on the back. "Holy shit, dude, that was crazy!"
Mike wobbled a little as he stood up. "What's next?"
Dreki gave him a maniacal grin as he said, "Bench."
After most of the regulars had returned to the places they occupied before, a slim old man with a pencil mustache wearing a tan trench coat strode up to the bar. He called to the barkeep, who was bent down beneath the bar. "Oi! The usual." The barmen stood up, mumbling. He slid an ashtray to the slim old man and said, "Wait a bloody minute, Fletch, I'm changing a barrel." The thin old man lit a cigarette using an antique zippo lighter and puffed away while he waited for the barkeep to finish his task. A little while later, the barkeep stood up again and poured the old man a glass of whiskey.
The slim old man leaned against the bar, sipped his whiskey, and set his cigarette down on the edge of an ashtray. He stuck out his hand and, in a well-disguised cockney accent, said, "I'm Tim, although me mates call me Fletch, short for me last name, Fletcher." Enrique clumsily shook his hand, gave him a small smile, and tried his hand at a joke. "Enrique Martinez, my mother calls me pendejo, but I prefer it if you didn't."
The old man took another puff of his cigarette and asked, "What was your mate like?"
Isabella smiled as Enrique began telling a story.
This is just what he needs.
"Mike was the bravest motherfucker I've ever met." He laughed as he said, "This fucking guy… He asked for volunteers to charge the seals with knives, fire axes, and sharpened e-tools. That crazy bastard went first with a sword that he nicked somewhere." Enrique paused, and his eyes grew distant. "Half of us bought it en route." Enrique's mouth twisted into a malevolent grimace. "But when we got there, we slaughtered the bastards. We were covered head to toe in blue blood."
He flexed his robotic fingers. Enrique could still feel the jolt of his E-tool as it cleaved into flesh.
"Mike was like a fucking war god of old. Seeing him fight was the most terrifying yet beautiful thing I've ever seen. We carved and bashed our way through their ranks like an avalanche. They broke and ran after just a few minutes of hand-to-hand, but we didn't let up; we killed hundreds and hundreds. We would have killed them all, but they wised up and blew us to hell from orbit." He waved his hand over himself, "That's how I ended up like this, at any rate."
Tim shook his head in awe. "Bloody hell… I'd heard rumors that a couple of Yanks won an honest fight with the bastards, but I thought it was just a bleeding myth."
An even gloomier look settled over Enrique's face. "We didn't win, and we paid for the fleeting moment of triumph in blood. I got hit by the first salvo. I thought it was dead at first. I was lying face down in the middle of the road atop a pile of bodies, in total shock. I don't even know how I was conscious. I somehow managed to turn over and watched as the attack fell apart."
Isabella's mouth hung agape. Enrique had never explained exactly how he lost his limbs before.
"The fight had passed over me, and for a moment, I thought it was going to keep going, but after the second salvo, we routed."
Enrique finished his drink. "I watched as our guys ran past me. I screamed for help, but nobody did until Mike."
Enrique chuckled slightly. "The crazy bastard would have kept fighting all by himself if Roberts hadn't started dragging him back by the ear. Once he was turned, though, he made a beeline for me and hauled me out of there. We almost made it, we were only about twenty feet from the tunnels when we got caught in the edge of a blast. I saw a flash of light and then woke up in a Kael field hospital two days later. It was actually a stroke of luck. All our medics could have done for me was ease my way out."
Isabella quietly asked, "What happened to Mike?"
"I thought he was dead until we met in Lafayette as prisoners. He made it back into the tunnels with a few burns and somehow managed to hold everything together until the coalition surrendered a week later. He finally gave in after that."
The barkeep, who had been listening in the entire time, poured Enrique another drink.
After an extended period of silence from Enrique. Isabella took another draft of her beer and looked at Tim, "I'm Isabella."
Tim took a sip of his drink and puffed his cigarette as he looked her over, noting her navy-branded jacket, "What ship were you on?"
Isabella made the sign of the cross and said, "Domenico Millelire. We sunk ourselves ramming a seal shuttle parked off the coast of Sardinia. How about you, Tim? Did you serve?"
The man in the trench coat pulled his cigarette from between his teeth and said, "In Afghanistan, Helmand province. Probably before you were born. After I got home, I joined up with the fuzz, and the fools made me chief inspector."
Enrique set down his glass. His face grew serious. "Can you do me a favor, Tim?"
Tim cocked a bushy grey eyebrow. "What kind of favor?"
"Find the bastard who gave my friend the gun and nail him to a cross."
Tim put out his cigarette and said, "I'll see what I can do. The deputy of campus police is an old friend who owes me a favor or three, but the chief is a seal, so no promises."
Enrique clanked his glass into Tim's and said, "I can drink to that."
The captain stood in the center of the cockpit with his arms clasped behind his back. He peered out at the space station in the distance and commanded, "Full deceleration."
The pilot responded, "Aye, sir," and pushed the throttle all the way forward.
The first mate looked to the captain and said, "Incoming transmission from the station."
"Put it through."
She hit a button on her control panel, and the cockpit display was filled with the face of an elderly Kael man with carved tusks and a curled mustache. He coughed and said, "Broken Fin, dock in bay four and hold for hitching. We're behind schedule."
The captain said, "Understood. How for ECB?"
The elderly Kael apologetically answered, "I'm not sure. We had an iron freighter get a nav engine short on approach and crash into the storage area. We've spent most of the day dealing with that."
The captain said, "Got it."
The wrinkled Kael nodded and killed the transmission.
Steam billowed out around Mike as he stepped out of the shower stall with a towel wrapped around his waist. He walked across the cold tile floor to the bench with his toiletries bag. He pulled out a razor and a can of shaving cream, walked to a sink, and paused as he stared at his angular face in the mirror. He heard whirring and scraping noises to his side. He looked and saw Dreki, wearing nothing but a pair of boxers, sticking something that looked like a giant pencil sharpener on his tusks.
"What's that?"
Dreki looked at him and said, "Oh, this? It's a tusk trimmer. The army's maximum length is a half span; you can't wear a helmet with anything longer."
So that's why the crew have longer tusks…
"Makes sense."
Mike closed the industrial-sized drain and turned on the faucet, filling the sink with hot water.
"You should grow out your mustache; you will be treated like a child without one on Kael's prime."
"Good idea."
Mike lathered his face with shaving cream and started scraping the stubble from his cheeks.
Dreki set down his trimmer and said, "Nothing like some light bench and heavy squats to cure a hangover, huh?"
Mike chuckled, "Light for you, maybe. I think your second warmup set was more than the human bench press record."
Dreki smiled and said, "It's not really fair. We Kael are obviously bigger, and we actually have more muscles for the movement. Our pectorals have four heads, and we have two front deltoids. Although the same goes for legs for you humans. Our 'quads' aren't quads; we only have two muscles on the thigh and one hamstring; yours have four and two, respectively, plus your tendons store a lot more elastic energy than ours."
Mike turned his half-shaven face to Dreki and raised an eyebrow quizzically. "You seem to know a lot about this."
Dreki replied, "I was in school for exercise science before my mom enlisted me."
Mike's eyes widened. "You can get forced into the military by your parents?"
"Yeah, my mom and I don't get along much. She wants me to go into dueling like my dad, but I don't want to, so she enlisted me as punishment. After I finished high school, I broke free, changed my name, and went to college as far away as I could get." He laughed. "I lived in a shoebox apartment with no hot water, but I made it work for almost two years before she managed to track me down. I scraped just enough cash together working as a bouncer and personal trainer to pay rent. After I said no again, she signed me up for the army."
Mike awkwardly said, "That sucks. I can't imagine having a parent like that."
Dreki frowned as he took off the top of his tusk trimmer and banged it against the side of the sink, dropping tusk shavings down the drain. "It's not like that; my mom isn't awful. It's really me that's the problem. I'm hurting my family's reputation; we've been pro-duelists for five generations and champions for three. My dad was champion seven times. If I don't enter the lists, the family legacy dies."
I don't see how that's his problem…
"Did your dad want you to follow in his footsteps?"
Mike's question made Dreki frown. "I don't know. I shouldn't have brought this up. never had me practice dueling, but he brought me to the gym and taught me how to lift." Dreki sighed. "I was only ten when he died. He was probably waiting for me to get older to start, although he started training when he was six."
Mike dipped the razor in the basin of hot water. "Did he never say anything about it?"
Dreki's frown deepened. "No."
Mike shaved the last of the stubble remaining on his jaw and set down his razor on the sink. He pushed a button on the faucet and sighed as he watched the water spiral down the drain.
"Sounds to me like he wasn't going to force you into it to me."
Dreki's expression remained dour. "Maybe, maybe not. I probably shouldn't have brought that up."
Mike turned the faucet on to cold and washed the last bits of shaving cream from his face. He ran his fingers over the rough, light brown stubble that covered his upper lip. He wasn't a fan.
Dreki walked towards the door and said, "I'll go make us breakfast."
Mike walked into the cockpit and stared in awe at what they attached to the ship. It was like a bomb rack for an airplane, but it had to be at least ten kilometers long, and it mounted 3 rows of containers, all stacked 4 high.
"What's that?" Mike asked.
The first mate piqued up and answered, "It's an external cargo bay. You see, you can haul a lot more tonnage when you aren't in atmosphere. So we attach these things onto the front of the ship in space, securely, of course. It has to hang in place during FTL acceleration and deceleration. And then we offload it in space before we land. This one is all loaded with ore from asteroid mining, so we'll drop it off at a foundry that orbits a gas giant in the Kael system."
Mike crossed his arms and said, "How much can you get to FTL?"
The first mate tugged at her mustache momentarily and said, "For normal operations with this ship, it would be 61 million tons. But maximally, it all depends on how much room you have to accelerate and decelerate and how much fuel you have. Hypothetically, if we wanted to, we could probably push a few billion tons, but we would need about three weeks of full burn to slow down and speed up, and our FTL drive only has about ten days of burn before it melts itself into slag, so we can't really do much more than maybe a hundred million tons, but if we did a hundred million we couldn't stop fast enough to meet safety standards and then we couldn't use any imperial shipping lanes."
Mike leaned against the wall and asked, "What's up with imperial shipping lanes anyways? I've heard that they are working on opening one to Earth."
"Imperial shipping lanes are basically just a swathe of space where they clear all the debris, have traffic controllers, protect ships from interdiction, plus they have all the infrastructure you need to offload pretty much anything. It's safe to go through them with your shields down, which improves fuel economy. It's not by a whole lot, around 5-10% depending on how big your ship is, but over the light years, it adds up."
Dreki shouted from the kitchen. "Mike! Breakfast!"
Mike started to turn but pivoted back, "What's your name, by the way?"
The first mate's whiskers flared. "Calty."
He pointed to himself as he walked backward. "Mike. Gotta go."
Mike turned and walked over to the kitchen. He raised an eyebrow at the strange rectangles that steamed on the ceramic platter. They were about the size of a book, resembling bread made from beef jerky crumbs. "What's this?"
"It's called Telemmican. It's a mix of dried meat, fat, crushed nuts and droughtberries. You should be able to eat it."
Mike grabbed one and took a bite. He didn't care that it burnt his mouth. He was hungry. Mike's eyes watered a little at the explosion of sour and savoryness in his mouth. It was chewy and tasted odd, like dried lamb rehydrated in cranberry sauce and butter.
"How is it?"
Mike swallowed. "It's edible." He took another bite.
I knew I should have brought hot sauce.
The captain called, "Prepare for jump."
The engines began to hum at a high pitch, and the ship started subtly vibrating.
Mike looked at the cockpit. He frantically nudged Dreki and spoke with his mouthful, spraying crumbs across the table. "Do we need to strap in?"
Dreki began to open his mouth, but before he could say anything, Mike dropped his breakfast and grabbed for the table as his stomach lurched. He watched in awe through the cockpit glass as the light streaked by and suddenly disappeared.
Authors note in the comments