Assuming you mean in the US, there is a national system called NICS that basically has the FBI run a background check. Some states have additional systems to augment that.

The conditions that get you put into the “no” list are things like committing a felony, domestic violence, drug use, etc. Being committed (against their will) to a mental institution is on that list. A mental institution would have to report you with evidence to get you added to the list. Potentially, he could ask his psychiatrist to do that for him. It may not be an option, but if you brother is worried himself, that is good evidence, I think.

When you buy a gun, you have to check boxes on a form to say you aren’t a felon, addicted to drugs, a fugitive, etc. They can check the felon and fugitive part, so if you lie, you get in big trouble. Drugs, though, they obviously dont have a list, so really it’s just a way to add penalties if they can later prove that you lied (e.g., hunter biden). You couldn’t just do a drug and automatically pop onto a list.

Hormone imbalances can’t overcome thermodynamics. In people with hypothyroidism, the set point of their resting metabolic rate is lower, leading to fatigue and often being too cold.

So it’s not that they gain weight despite a deficit, it’s that a deficit for them would be less calories than someone with more activity who isnt cold all the time.

In a perfect world, calorie needs match with hunger, so with decreased calorie needs, you would naturally eat less, but it’s not always perfect so some people with hypothyroidism have “normal” hunger when they actually need less food. It ends up with 1/4-1/2 of people with hypothyroidism experiencing weight gain.

In addition to failing kidneys, stuff that messes with the lymphatic system. Everyone’s cells and bloodstream is slightly leaky, and whatever leaks out gets picked up by the lymphatic system, filtered through lymph nodes, and returned to the circulatory system. A break in that chain due to injury/disease can cause fluid to accumulate upstream. Look up elephantitis.

Also, liver/heart failure can create ascites, which is fluid accumulation inside the abdomen (looks more like pregnancy belly than obesity belly).

Similarly, malnutrition in kids in poor areas often results in kwashiorkor, which makes them have big bellies but really skinny arms and legs. Its basically a protein deficiency from eating only corn or whatever.

That’s mostly a step up in water weight, but it doesnt keep increasing.

Unironically, yes. Lots of off the shelf diet pills are literally just caffeine pills (e.g., hydroxycut). Old school diet pills were literally amphetamines before governments made it so you couldnt get them off the shelf (e.g., obetrol), and technically you can still get it prescribed (desoxyn is methamphetamine).

The problem is, a normal dose of caffeine just makes you a little warmer, and burn a little bit of extra calories, but amphetamines and especially 2,4-Dinitrophenol (other banned weight loss drug) can literally cook you by making you burn so many extra calories.

By definition, that wouldn’t be a deficit. You could have a “predicted” calorie deficit that ends up being off by some percentage. The models for energy expenditure typically just use pretty simple demographic info like BMI, sex, age, and activity level. If someone burned less calories than predicted, that basically means that they are less fit than the average person of their demographic cohort.

You could use more advanced models with more information, but they would still be predictions. Drugs also come into play: uppers like caffeine, nicotine, amphetamines, etc, increase the amount of activity in your body so you are literally warmer from burning more calories, everything else equal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floater

Singh and Kaur for males and females, respectively, if I understand right.

Some nicknames converge from different starting points, too. Teddy is also short for Theodore, etc.

I used to hate mushrooms until I started foraging. It turns out I’m just not a big fan of Agaricus bisporus, and it turns out that’s the absolute lions share of mushroom consumption in the western world in various forms with various names.

Foraging though, it’s all so good.

The problem is that French food in the Anglosphere has literally been the fancy food since 1066. That’s why English has 2 words for every meat: the germanic peasant word and the french nobleman’s culinary word (cow-beef, chicken-poultry, deer-venison, sheep-mutton, swine-pork, etc).

Being the default “fancy” food is going to do damage to any cuisine as the purpose becomes more about fanciness than tasting good or being what people from the place actually eat.

For another example, look at American Italian food. In a lot of small towns, Italian restaurants are the de facto fancy restaurant . It’s basically made it so that Italian restaurants in much of the US are either way too expensive and fancy or they’ve gone the opposite route and just overcharge for really basic pasta with sauce (olive garden).

If you don’t like truffle oil, you probably just don’t like truffle, and that’s fine. Like the other commenter said, it’s literally just the same compound that’s been synthesized.

2,4-Dithiapentane

Real truffles obviously have some other flavoring compounds in there, but like vanilla vs vanilin, you’d probably have a hard time distinguishing between them in a dish in a blind taste test.

I have eaten shaved truffles, and even that’s really a gamble. The problem is that they aren’t really good until they are “ripe”, but once you dig them up, i don’t think they ripen any more. There’s also a big counterfeit problem since many species look similar. I’ve had good truffles, and I’ve had truffles that literally just taste like nothing.

It was literally a marketing campaign from Big Hog, who were losing money cause of anti-fat, anti-salt dieting.

salami

Tampan detected. I love a Cuban sandwich, but I’ve never had one from Tampa, so maybe yours are worse, lol.

It’s good, but it’s not as good as what they charge for it.

Seconding cooking for sure. You have to eat, so you might as well find a way to enjoy it, save money, and stay healthy in the process.

Repairing things. Electronics, clothes, furniture, it doesn’t matter what, but try to learn how to repair stuff. It eventually encourages you to buy less, but higher quality items. Also everyone likes if you fix their favorite thing.

Organizing people. This isnt often treated as a skill, but it really is. You’ll find over time that in your group of friends, someone is always the person to try to put together the next activity. Try to be that person. That’s super useful in all parts of life. Keep in mind that people will end up being lazy and expecting you to keep doing the work, but try not to take it personally.

Yeah, if you are a routine meat eater, it’s not unreasonable for meat to make up over 50% of your grocery bill, especially if it’s beef.

Even if you don’t want to be vegetarian or vegan, using meat as a condiment (e.g., pepperoni pizza) instead of a staple really saves money.

Yeah, I’m probably what you’d call a patient gamer. Usually not playing anything more recent than 5 years old, and often way older.

I’m sure I have seen it before, but I can’t think of a single game that lets you pause during a cutscene. It really sucks for turn-based games where you need to watch whats happening when it’s not your turn in order to respond correctly.

I remember a game I used to play years ago that had no ability to pause, so what i would do is alt+tab to the task manager and suspend the process, and then resume it later. Obviously that’s way more clunky than just hitting a pause button.

American cities largely lack whats called the “missing middle” of housing. Lots of single family homes, lots of big apartment buildings, but not a lot of 3-6 unit apartments. This amplifies the housing shortage, encourages urban sprawl, and forces car dependency.

This is caused by a few factors, but the requirement for all apartments to have 2 staircases is a big one. The requirement was originally made back in the day when house fires were a big issue. Now, house fires are mainly an issue in single family homes and cars. Apartment fires aren’t really an issue at all, and they make the news if they happen.

Modern codes for wiring, smoke detectors, and sprinkler systems render an extra staircase unnecessary, and by forcing people who could live in an apartment in the city to instead commute from a single family homes in the suburbs, the codes actually increase deaths by fire.