I agree with your note about medium armor penetration. It’s nice to have, but across the weapons I’ve tried the damage has felt unimpressive enough that I’d rather just find a way to make a different weapon with light armor penetration work.

I’ll have to give it a shot, I’ve had some crashes with my 6750 XT running through Proton. Is there any noticeable change in performance or visuals when switching?

I’ve actually found that heavy armor makes it harder, at least for me - too difficult to escape sticky situations. I’ve been running light or medium armor with the scout passive and playing like it’s a stealth game - sneak up to an outpost, lob an eagle/orbital/impact grenade/etc in to clear out the fabs and bots, then quickly clear any objectives and get out before a patrol arrives

The trick I’ve found with the Quasar is the range - find a target, blast them from 50m away, then sneak around and kill any pursuers before lining up a second shot if necessary.

Yep

There are a few (difficult, but possible) ways to get extra copies despite the limit though, like changing your name

Please don’t give your SSN to health care institutions, they don’t need it. They like to ask for it on their intake forms so that they can find you more easily if they need to send your debt to collections, but most will accept a blank entry anyways.

No, you don’t need to carry it around. Memorizing it and keeping it safe for the few occasions you do need the card itself is fine.

Yes, there are side effects. They vary depending on the length of treatment (generally patients are not allowed to stay on them indefinitely to mitigate this) and the medication used, but puberty blockers have been used for ~40 years now and we have a good understanding of the risks. GnRH agonists are the most common type of puberty blocker used today, and the typical side effects are:

• Hot flashes
• Gynecomastia
• Fatigue
• Weight gain
• Decreased libido and erectile function

These side effects generally end once treatment stops, whether switching to hormone replacement therapy or stopping all gender-affirming treatment. These side effects are typical of low sex hormone levels in general, and are generally annoyances that can be managed rather than major risks that are likely to harm the patient long term. It’s also worth noting that some of these are seen as neutral or even positive to some patients - e.g. patients who were assigned male at birth and are interested in feminizing treatment often consider gynecomastia and decreased erectile function as positive effects.

When puberty blockers are continued for longer periods of time, there are additional risks which grow with the duration of the treatment:

• Reduced bone density, which can increase risk of or worsen osteoporosis
• Metabolic issues, which can worsen weight gain or diabetes in particular
• Having puberty delayed by any means tends to result in a child growing taller than they would otherwise

These risks are more serious, which is why puberty blockers are not prescribed indefinitely. For gender affirming treatment, puberty blockers are generally prescribed for up to two or three years, depending on local regulations and the patient’s tolerance of the treatment. After this period, patients have the option of either continuing gender affirming treatment with hormone replacement therapy (so that they can experience a different puberty than the one typically associated with their birth sex), or stopping treatment and allowing puberty to run its course as usual.

It’s also worth noting that puberty blockers are not considered in a vacuum - the risks are considered against the risk of allowing puberty to continue as usual. For children with gender dysphoria, puberty is often a severely traumatic experience. This can cause or worsen depression and suicidality, and can leave a transgender person with sexual characteristics they do not want and will have to treat later with riskier and/or more intense forms of treatment like surgery. The risks of puberty blockers are comparatively mild, which is part of why the side effects are regarded as safe for transgender patients.

Lastly, I’ll also note that all of this treatment involves mental health professionals as well. While adults in some regions can choose to start gender affirming treatment on their own without needing a formal diagnosis, treatment for children requires much more work and dedication. Typically, a minor who wants to begin gender affirming treatment for gender dysphoria will need:

• Consent from at least one parent
• A diagnosis or letter of support from a mental health practitioner who’s seen them as a patient
• A doctor or endocrinologist who can prescribe the medications
• Ongoing check-ups while they’re undergoing treatment, to assess both their physical health (physical exams, blood work to check hormone levels and organ function) and mental health (sessions with a mental health practitioner to make sure that the treatment is actually benefiting their mental health and consistent with their identity)

No, barring some other condition, puberty resumes once you stop using puberty blockers. There are increasing risks of side effects when staying on puberty blockers for more than a couple years, so it’s usually a temporary measure to give children with gender dysphoria more time to explore their identity without subjecting them to the irreversible effects of puberty yet. As a result, doctors won’t allow a patient to stay on puberty blockers permanently (barring outliers where it would actually be safer to do so, e.g. because of cancer risk associated with sex hormones). There are two typical outcomes:

1. The patient determines that they would like to transition medically, and will transition from puberty blockers to hormone replacement therapy according to their goals. This essentially allows them to replace the pubertal effects typically associated with their birth sex with something else depending on the regimen.
2. The patient determines that they don’t want to transition medically, and stops puberty blockers without starting hormone replacement therapy. At this point, puberty begins/resumes on its own as usual.

You can’t stop people from having sex, so it’s best to give them the education and healthcare necessary to reduce risks.

Each table contains one column with the patches and one column without the patches - the hardware is unchanged. The different tables are to measure the impact of the patches across different hardware.

Note that Mullvad no longer allows port forwarding, which can make it harder to torrent effectively

Google has one, but it’s still very small at the moment.

The vast majority of Google’s revenue comes from advertising, which will remain relevant even if search more or less dies. They put ads in almost every other one of their products, not to mention the ad space they buy and then resell on other sites.

What was the pre-release story for BZ? I played it this year and thought the story was fine, though it didn’t manage to recapture the feelings of mystery and discovery of the first game

Gonads are either testes or ovaries (at least for humans)

Battery powered EVs also have a greater environmental impact to manufacture than equivalent ICE vehicles, but the greater efficiency in energy conversion and the lack of emissions offsets this in less than five years of use on average. Ideally, it will continue to improve as battery technology advances as well.

I’m still annoyed that the Massachusetts ballot question on RCV failed to pass because of the unclear phrasing

And then there’s Mr. Robot in its own tier, using actual real-world tools and frameworks, with realistic flags and everything!