Researcher Warns That Military Must Prepare For "Mutant" Future 179
Researcher Patrick Lin says that with the development of a wide range of technologies including: drugs, special nutrition, gene therapy and robotic implants, the military needs to plan for a future where soldiers have "mutant powers.” From the article: "If we don’t, we could find ourselves in big trouble down the road. Among the nightmare scenarios: Botched enhancements could harm the very soldiers they’re meant to help and spawn pricey lawsuits. Tweaked troopers could run afoul of international law, potentially sparking a diplomatic crisis every time the U.S. deploys troops overseas. And poorly planned enhancements could provoke disproportionate responses by America’s enemies, resulting in a potentially devastating arms race (PDF)."
Mutant Powers? (Score:2, Insightful)
Why is it we can't get mutants out of our own labs but our enemies are going to be able to do this just like that?
I want my mutants!
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Why is it we can't get mutants out of our own labs but our enemies are going to be able to do this just like that?
I want my mutants!
Rules and Regulations. That's why.
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Mutants already exist, they don't care about people , They have a collective name:
Lawmakers., They work in Washington DC
Be careful , because if you think you found an honest lawmaker, you might yourself be a mutant
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But seriously. How would you retire from that?
The normal way that all weapons of war are retired when the war ends.
Anyone accepting these implants, enhancements, or whatever should understand that it's a one way thing. They are giving up their life to become a weapon of war.
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The normal way that all weapons of war are retired when the war ends.
Sold to a third world dictator?
Sounds bad.
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The normal way that all weapons of war are retired when the war ends.
Sold to a third world dictator?
Sounds bad.
I meant death. But that would indeed be worse.
Re:Mutant Powers? (Score:5, Interesting)
You morons. I WAS a weapon. By the end of my training I would have have killed a bus full of nuns and orphans with a spoon, if so ordered. I wouldn't have cared about nationality or skin color or if they were good looking, just if they were the designated target or not. That's the wonder of intense psychological conditioning. Helsinki Syndrome isn't just a made up thing, it's the core of all intense military conditioning programs, and it sinks in even worse if you have Asperger Syndrome. It took me years to readjust to civilian life after separation.from the service. How did they de-militarize me? Gave me a two minute briefing about how I would be charged and tried by a military court if I talked about any classified actions I'd been a part of. Period. They stamped my paperwork, gave me my final paycheck, and said I had 24 hours to get off post.
If there had been any hardware installed in me, they would have removed it or destroyed it, and only left something functioning (at bare minimal levels) if it was life-critical. The hardware may be military, but the biological portion is under contract. A pretty nasty contract, but still a legal binding agreement. If they perform any "elective medical procedures" you can be sure that they'll have the DOD's ass covered, and yours will be flapping in the breeze. And before someone mentions it: Secret medical experiments on troops (and civilians) are a f*cking tradition,for the military. Laws won't change that. You think that breaking a few laws means anything to a corp of cold-blooded killers?
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Conditioning, you either choose or refuse, conditioning is just an excuse of the morally weak. As for mutant powers. There is no way psychopath leaders could ever trust their minions with those powers beyond the fantasies of Hollywood. Psychopaths would only allow themselves those powers but they would not really trust genetic scientists to experiment on them. So all in all, reality is, it is a catch 22.
Which is why psychopaths like automated killing machines so much. Death by a drone fired missile, with
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Conditioning, you either choose or refuse, conditioning is just an excuse of the morally weak. As for mutant powers. There is no way psychopath leaders could ever trust their minions with those powers beyond the fantasies of Hollywood. Psychopaths would only allow themselves those powers but they would not really trust genetic scientists to experiment on them. So all in all, reality is, it is a catch 22.
Which is why psychopaths like automated killing machines so much. Death by a drone fired missile, with a propaganda based 100% perfect track record of murdering, under law innocent suspects (innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, the law is the law and propaganda is just bullshit).
Sounds like you've never been in the military. The GP and GGP are correct. Back in the day, during the draft, if you fought the conditioning, you could get a dishonorable discharge and the Army threatened that if that happened, they'd ruin your life. Sometimes, they'd do it, too.
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Back in the day I was asked the question what would you do if an officer became a threat to the general public, my answer was, shoot them. While it earned my some disturbed looks, the answer was legally correct. My morality was in place prior to the military and remained as firmly in place during and after the military. You are who you are and remain nobodies slave as long as you have the courage and choose not to be a slave, your life bloody own it.
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Bombs are still exploding in Germany, kills about ten people every year.
While old bombs are still found daily in Germany, very few of them explode, even fewer explode under uncontrolled conditions, and there is about one incident per decade where humans are hurt - mostly members of the bomb disposal squad.
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FTFY
Do you not think that the American upper class knows how to keep any vestige of hope from their down-trodden masses.
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We are not responsible for other country's disproportionate responses to our defensive capabilities.
Offensive capabilities.. Other countries are not going to be offended by you defending yourself, they will be offended by you attacking others.
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Expendable test subjects.
Mutant Irony (Score:3)
http://www.pdfernhout.net/recognizing-irony-is-a-key-to-transcending-militarism.html [pdfernhout.net] ... There is a fundamental mismatch between 21st century reality and 20th
"Biological weapons like genetically-engineered plagues are ironic because they are about using advanced life-altering biotechnology to fight over which old-fashioned humans get to occupy the planet. Why not just use advanced biotech to let people pick their skin color, or to create living arkologies and agricultural abundance for everyone everywhere?
nuff said (Score:1)
"California Polytechnic State University,
San Luis Obispo
College of Liberal Arts
Philosophy Department
Ethics + Emerging Sciences Group"
http://ethics.calpoly.edu/Greenwall_report.pdf [calpoly.edu]
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That ethics professors don't understand current military ethics, and are therefore not qualified to comment on how military ethics are likely to change in ligh of new technical developments.
in this case if you simply replace the scare-words like "mutant," and "bio-weapon" with older military technologies like "machine-gun," or "metal monoplane," that changed everything pretty much every sentence he wrote still works. This means that pretty much everything he wrote is going over very old ground in military t
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Not sure I understand. Isn't this what philosophers are supposed to do?
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You mean pretend that something completely normal, totally routine, and not-at-all-different is the end of the world? I suppose that is actually slightly more useful to the human race then arguing about Nietche.
Most of the stuff they're worried about is common to all forms of technology. The V-22 Osprey must killed 30 Marines before they got the computer flight controls working right. People started using drugs to enhance their military performance roughly 30 seconds after they discovered coffee. Arms races
NO! (Score:2)
Not the Ninja Turtles!
International law? (Score:2)
"Tweaked troopers could run afoul of international law..."
This happens fairly often already. Are they saying it would be much worse? Also, what is the scenario for having these mutants here in our own country?
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I'm thinking an expansion of the definition of GMO.
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WCPGW (Score:2)
Obligatory:
What could possibly go wrong?
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Especially since some of the research seems to be focusing [independent.co.uk] on how to reduce soldiers' critical thinking and ethical scruples. That's been going on for a while in other ways: after realizing that a lot of soldiers purposely fired above their enemies' heads due to an intrinsic distaste for shooting people, a lot of military training has been focused on overcoming the (otherwise generally desirable) "not a psycho who wants to put a bullet in another human" reflex. Could get a lot more problematic if it's actua
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No modern military wants a soldier with poor critical thinking skills and no ethical scruples. What they want is a soldier who applies all his critical thinking skills to the mission at hand, in the context of the larger campaign, and instinctively follows military ethics. Guys who are unethical and don't think things through tend to go to the nearest village and massacre everyone the second after a successful Taliban Ambush, which is not acceptable.
The TMS tech you're talking about is intended to enhance c
Sounds like the plot of a book (Score:2)
For a more in depth look into the imaginary future of mutant cyborg warfare might I suggest the Germline series [barnesandnoble.com] by T. C. McCarthy.
Or, instead, you could... (Score:2)
...note that in industrial civilization, riches accrue to those who best stimulate human ingenuity and productivity through peaceful trade and development, not to those who can enslave the most serfs, and that the entire basis of military arms races is basically a "caveman" mentality, obsolete since before WW1, really: https://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/01/09-6 [commondreams.org]
The justification for arms races was, throughout the nuclear arms race, that we must beat the other team to the capability; except that *taking
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Been tried before... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Naval_Treaty [wikipedia.org]
Only takes one player breaking the rules to overturn the whole thing.
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Sure, except we haven't un-invented nuclear weapons, which remain kind of a trump over things like teenage mutant ninja soldiers since few mutations prevent you from being vaporized if sufficient joules are radiated into your mutant molecules.
So my treaty would be not so much ironclad (little naval joke there) as uranium-clad, involving capital cities becoming smoking holes, etc.
Already kind of here, really, The journalist I cited, Gwynne Dyer, as also passed along the joke told by military planners world
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riches accrue to those who best stimulate human ingenuity and productivity through peaceful trade and development
As nations, yes-ish. As individuals, no.
For example, if I have a great idea for a new technology, and somebody takes my idea and patents it before I do, then they get the riches and I don't, even though I had the ingenuity. Similarly, if I started out broke, and didn't have the funds to go through the process of patenting my idea, then I'm going to have to:
- Sell it to somebody who does (and then they get most of the profit and rather than me)
- Go to work for somebody who does (and then it's a work for hire
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Agree on all counts. I was very definitely speaking of nations. However, even here, you'll note that you are more *likely* to get rich inventing a new mousetrap these days, than by leading your neighbours to declare war on the suburb a mile over and attempting to take their houses and women. "Conan vs. SWAT" never became a successful comic.
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Well your first statement is correct, that nations that are based more on trade and production are the ones that are the richest. But at the same time your caveman neighbor can conquer you if you don't spend money on an army. Sure it won't make him rich for long, but it will also destroy you. So as long as not every nation in the work is 'sane', arms races will kind of necessary for survival.
Wasn't the justification for the US/USSR arms race the desire to have the other guy bankrupt himself through overspen
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Bankrupting the enemy was not the strategy, it was having better weapons and more of them, but that did accidentally bankrupt the enemy.
So the motivation was to have really good weapons and enough of them that we could threaten the USSR enough that they would be too scared to do anything offensively.
We just happened to bankrupt them when they tried to keep pace, oops, there went that cash cow for the defense industries.
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And yet both the richest country in the world and the one most likely to depose it are both built on enslaving serfs for the benefit of the few
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Never appeal to somebody's better nature. They just might not have one...
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Such a shame, really. When the world ended because of chemical and biological weapons that couldn't be stopped, flattened by nuclear wars....no, wait, none of that ever happened. Agreed, if you make a treaty that says "if you prepare for war, you'll have one immediately"...and then don't actually attack Japan when it starts building ships, then, yeah, they'll just break the treaty.
If you actually attack, on the other hand, the "Pax " situations have lasted for centuries on end.
The next horror blockbuster (Score:2)
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Can't wait for Mutants vs. Zombies!
I believe that game was called Fallout.
Wrong problem (Score:2)
Somehow, I doubt this is the problem.
War is not won by Rambos. Even special-ops types aren't built like Arnold. War is won by people who make the right decisions under pressure and have the skills and endurance to carry them out.
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War is not won by Rambos. Even special-ops types aren't built like Arnold. War is won by people who make the right decisions under pressure and have the skills and endurance to carry them out.
Right. So what happens if you have a man who is calm and is capable of very high-quality tactical decisions while under fire, but who doesn't have the endurance or strength of the people you want him to lead? Wouldn't it be nice if you could just give him that endurance and strength, rather than try to find a way to move that tactical ability into a bigger body?
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Wouldn't it be nice if you could just give him that endurance and strength
Bio is risky but we have centuries long tradition of war profiteering by manufacturing all manner of APCs, tanks, traditional aircraft, attack choppers, etc.
Its not the Spartan 300 anymore.
"hmm the C.O. isn't strong enough to fire an arrow beyond 100 yards... could use a magic potion to make him a SuperArcher... nah F it issue him a M16 and be done with it"
"hmm the C.O. is getting tired out on long pack marches.... we could bioengineer the 6 million dollar man's legs on to him... nah F it issue him a HMMVW
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I'm sure Ghengis Khan had to do a lot of wrestling and so forth as a kid, but Julius Caesar, a patrician from birth, probably never had to touch one of the lowlife brutes he commanded, much less beat one up with his fists to establish his leadership.
Or so they insist, anyway (Score:2)
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I think the article means to say... (Score:2)
... that foreign countries should be prepared for the US Military to have a mutant future.
Its not like the rest of the world considers their militaries so ridiculously important to invest in constant cutting edge future tech innovation all the time in all aspects of war. The US may do this, but the rest of the world will still be pretty happy with their 1990s tanks and 2000s satellite technology.
queue the slashdotter with one article pointing at one small research project in one country claiming 'not *nece
Re:I think the article means to say... (Score:4, Insightful)
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The US military has been shaped by paranoia about a preemptive strike ever since Pearl Harbor. They don't want to be caught a decade behind and short on forces ever again
Aka sept 11th 2001
Enough money has been spent that we can't ack or recognize a failure without really bad things happening to the messenger. But it seems to be true, however much of a thoughtcrime it may be to consider it. You could ague the same idea WRT the recent unpleasantness with the dead ambassador.
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The US military has been shaped by paranoia about a preemptive strike ever since Pearl Harbor. They don't want to be caught a decade behind and short on forces ever again, especially just to salve the conscience of some whiny hippies.
Oh, really? Only since and because Pearl Harbour you say? Well, how about this whiny hippy [wikipedia.org]?
I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.
those that know them best... (Score:2)
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I would love it if somebody with Eisenhower's abilities were in charge again and could intelligently make the armed fo
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Besides which, you're grossly missing the point. We're not talking about what any given person thinks about US foreign policy, but about why the US military has kept higher force numbers and more modern equipment. The military from the end of the Civil War to World War 2 was pretty low key in both equipment and numbers (with a
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How is having spent way less, and still spending less going to 'catch up'? I"m not sure if you've ever done any math or watched a race before, but if you enter a race going slow and you're going faster now, but still slower than the leader, you're not catching up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures [wikipedia.org]
Yes... not necessarily. But realistically, functionally, and sensibly, YES. STFU AC slashtard.
Stupid fucking name. (Score:5, Insightful)
Calling this "mutant powers" is trivializing this entire issue. It makes light of the fact that millions of people are using stimulants and nootropics that lie in a legal gray area pertaining to employment and schoolwork. Calling this "mutant powers" is the most inappropriate thing you could do.
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It's very appropriate as it's the new standard of Government Publication Policy to refer to everything in as dramatically characterized a manner as possible so that civil servants and political types can understand it. Using references to popular media such as comic books, TV and Movies is highly recommended to insure the greatest comprehension and retention on information comprehension by 6 year olds, Members Congress and the Military.
Consider the following proposed report title: "Future Risks of the Rise
For clear understanding.. (Score:2)
We need to create mutant solders to protect us from the mutant solders who mutiny.
I think they coved this in a few syfy channel movi (Score:2)
I think they coved this in a few syfy channel movies
The X Files coved stuff like this (Score:2)
The X Files coved stuff like this
I think that someone has been reading... (Score:2)
Unfortunately, what they've been reading is a little too much X-Men.
Why bother? (Score:2)
We should make a legislative framework that will outline the boundaries of such a program, sort of like the Geneva Conventions. Then countries like the US would never violate those rules.
Seriously. What's the point in even talking about it? the US is just going to do whatever it feels like.
uh, let's see. mutant meat. aha!-- guns. next.. (Score:2)
the military has what amounts to big-ass guns and bombs of all types, sufficient to take down mutant meat marching. next problem, please...
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Great for invading, but modern war isn't really about invasion. You can't just carpet-bomb cities any more. There's a lot more peacekeeping and urban combat now. High-tech toys can be very useful in those situations, and are still in their infancy. We don't even have a bullet-proof vest that can be worn unobtrusively.
Wrong date guys (Score:2)
What COULD happen is that somebody graft some biomechanic prothese giving an advantage like better muscle, drug implant or even eye sight enhanced and protected against flashbang, but that's nothing which could not be done by the "1st country" in term of military science. In fact I content a full mechanical device
Forgot a word damn (Score:2)
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If you're doing surgical mods, I rather like the idea of fitting hydraulic valves on major blood vessels.
Solder get their leg blown off? Femoral artery constricts, circulation cuts off. Enough to keep them alive until the fight is over and medic arrives.
oblig. (Score:2)
Arms Race (Score:2)
So many jokes, so little time...
Odds Of That Versus (Score:2)
Lol (Score:2)
Unleash the giant tentacle monster!
Two things occur to me... (Score:2)
(1) someone has been watching too many episodes of Beauty and the Beast. Or, (2) there's some really screwy secret experimentation going on. But if (2), why would we even hear about possible protocols to contain? (You'd think they would be secret too.)
What a Strangelove (Score:2)
The Men Who Stare at Goats (Score:3)
Not likely to happen... (Score:2)
Short version : nothing new. (Score:2)
Didn't I hear something about "Gulf War Syndrome" recently, or wasn't it the families of ex-soldiers who died while sueing about being used as crash radiation dummies in atom-bomb tests?
"Check" on that one.
Haven't I been awake and aware since the late 1970s? Yes. so there's a "check" on that one too.
(But - doesn't
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It would have been kewl if I'd gotten the ability to smash tanks with rays from my eyes. Or even retractable claws that could cut through steel. But, with my luck, I would have wound up with 7 fingers on each hand.
God schmod, I want my monkeyman! (Score:2)
Should be building Axel Pressbutton clones that would build iPads 27 hours a day as long as you keep jazzing their pleasure center.
I'm pretty sure
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The military has been conducting experiments on soldiers for at least 20 years.
A sampling.
http://www.livescience.com/12991-10-outrageous-military-experiments.html [livescience.com]
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Kind of not really
The speed thing is for aircraft pilots "as necessary" only. Never heard of your average grunt getting stimulants beyond coffee and retail energy drinks (monster, red bull, etc)
The suppressant is a joke that went out of style around the time of coed army units, I'm guessing 70s / post vietnam era. Other than wedding cake, no scientifically proven substance like that exists, and you don't want to know the details but rest assured there was absolutely no suppression of that type going on in
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not just pilots, for example snipers were given amphetimines. "No such substance exists", yes it does and it is quite common, it's called "saltpeter" (potassium nitrate)
You must be young....
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I call this bullshit. If you drink two gallons of water, chances are that your electrolytes go awry. You might even die. Second, no mtter how much water you hold, you can only pee so much. Also, hint: average urine density (should be between 1010 and 1025). Lower than 1010, you're a suspect because it means you drink too much water for some reason, so a blood test is requested.
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(some poor bastard has to stand there and watch you piss from my understanding.)
This is why I never understood the mil's problem with the gays.. Officer Gaylord was always polite and willing to go the extra mile and shake your dick off for you after the piss test. That kind of dedication to such a crap detail really goes to show just how far gays can excel in a military environment as team members and friends with benefits for the enlisted man...
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I have used this method in the past, but with two additional steps that cover your comment.
Lots of water, but also eat very well and take vitamins with the water. You want the test to find what you just consumed, not what you took last night.
You are correct about two gallons being close to lethal so not quite that much water.
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If you drink two gallons of water, chances are that your electrolytes go awry. You might even die.
I've drunk much more than two gallons of water in a day without taking salt pills. I salt my food liberally, though. This is not such a bad idea as it sounds because I cook it, it's not some bullshit processed food already made of a ton of salt. If you're taking in more salts, then you can drink a fuckton of water in a pretty short period of time. My first job was following the steam train up the mountain in Felton, and I definitely had to take salt tablets and drink more than two gallons of water in a day
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Water has a Median Lethal Dose of 90g/kg. Two gallons is 9000g, therefore lethal for a body weighting 100kg. And it's not about whether you take salt tablets or not, it's about intracranial pressure, which is physics. You can't cheat out of that. ...Well who knows, maybe your brain is smaller and you don't feel the symptoms :)
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Go ahead... try another method. This isn't something I have to worry about anymore, I'm an adult now... lol. But I never failed a test in my youth and I took dozens. I drank 2 gallons of water and felt no ill health effects. I believe the mistake you're making is thinking that you're retaining 2 gallons of water. You're not. You're pissing constantly... that's the entire point. And no, you shouldn't just beer bong a gallon of water... You drink it a normal pace. it'll probably take you the whole hour to fin
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I don't do any drugs nor have I ever been in the military so I don't need to try any method. I'm just telling you what is happening there, scientifically.
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When I did urine drug screens for the CHP at my lab, one recruit's sample was refused. He said they called him and said to do it again, it was too diluted.
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Amphetamines yes, I've seen the cites. Sexual desire suppressant? Don't tell me you bought into the whole 'saltpeter' horse shit. That was debunked a long time ago.
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Oh, we were fed the same line when I was in the US Army. Snopes [snopes.com] says 'no', and to be honest I think any suppression was due to exhaustion from four hours of sleep and twenty hour training days.
That's how I remember basic training/AIT. A big day in the Army started at 0330, and the drill instructors seemed to think you'd wasted 3 and a half hours already on something as trivial as sleep.
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Oh I hear ya. CFB Cornwallis (known as Wally-world at the time by its inmates) was exactly that. 3-4 hours sleep was the norm, and the days were brutal.
Fun Times!
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The whole salt peter myth along with other secret drugs in food and vaccinations is just that, a myth. There might have been clandestine testing of stimulants to enhance awareness or stamina but I have not researched any of that. Most likely those are more myths or conspiracies.
The suppressed sex drive is stress is related to stress and sleep pattern changes and is most noticeable during boot camp. Imagine being thrust into an intense physical and combat training course for 10 weeks where you under total co
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Because the cease fire from Operation Desert Storm DID NOT have any provisions concerning U.N. weapons inspectors verifying that the chemical weapons which Iraq had in their possession [wikipedia.org] were not being used. Or did you miss that part of the cease fire agreement?