When I was in middle school, perhaps 9th grade of so I had many various chores around the house. One of them was to take care of the dogs. They lived in the backyard. It was a fenced in area, and they were “outside” dogs.
Every morning, my job was to pick up the “last night” empty food bowls and bring them onto the porch. That way, my mother would get them and clean them up. After that, I would go though the yard to the back alley and make my way to school, or on the weekend; to work.
One day, after I got ready for school. All dressed up with clean clothes, I went to the back and picked up the metal doggies bowls when my bigger dog “Belle” ran up though the muddy back yard and leaped up into my chest.
Now, Belle was a Siberian Husky. Not a huge dog, but big enough, and just about knocked me down. So there I was covered in mud, and the dog was happy as could be. But I was late for school, covered in mud, and screaming at the poor dog.
All that screaming and hollering brought my neighbor a running. He was a medic during the Vietnam war. And perhaps was ready to prep me for surgery. LOL.
Long story short, the neighbor left chucking. I went to class covered in mud and dog shit. I was the butt of jokes all day, and when I came home, my parents yelled at me for being so “poorly dressed” during class. Butt of jokes at school. Berated by my parents for lack of awareness. (And I am sure that my sister did her best to make me look pathetic and stupid in their eyes; embellishing and lies for grand effect.) And thus, endith my story.
People!
Never get caught muddy and covered in dog shit because you have chores to do. Take your time. Organize yourself. And stand up for the situations that assault you.
Today…
Disturbing
Have you ever been invited to something that turned out to be another thing entirely?
I had a friend at work who kept wanting my husband and me to come over for dinner with her and her husband. Finally, I accepted her invitation although my husband wasn’t too keen about it as he had never met them and he wasn’t exactly comfortable in social situations.
When we arrived there was no smell of dinner cooking but were offered drinks to start the evening. A few minutes later some other couples arrived and they too were handed drinks. I thought it would only be the four of us but realized that more people meant my husband wouldn’t be put on the spot to talk just with my friend’s husband.
As others were chatting we noticed that everyone else was getting along pretty well and I felt good knowing this was a congenial group. Shortly after, I was chatted up by a man I did not know. “Oh good, I finally get to meet someone,” I thought. I look around and see a panicked look on my husband’s face. I excused myself from my new gentleman friend and went to my hubby’s rescue. “We have to go,” he whispered. “What’s wrong?” I said. “Don’t ask”, he said. We just have to go, NOW!” I went to my friend and told her my husband didn’t feel well and that we would have to take a raincheck for dinner.
Come to find out, dinner was not what we expected. There was to be no dinner at all. The evening was to be a wife-swapping party and we were as shocked as anyone would be!
I never mentioned a thing to my friend but neither did we accept a ‘dinner’ invitation from them again!
Funny
Have you ever had to put an elderly person in their place?
Well, we tried once.
When my dad was about 90, a neighbor once chewed our ear off about our dad still driving. He never went over 25 mph, he could be seen looking out over the crops rather than paying attention to the road, we needed to take his keys, for his own safety.
We had thought about this before. And Moses and I strategized, planned out exactly what to say, made a plan for Dad getting wherever he needed to go (Mo had two 20 something boys at home at the time.)
We were ready. I came home for the weekend, and Friday night, after dinner, Mo began with, “Dad, we’d like to talk about your driving.”
And that was as far as it went. Dad turned the sheer blue ice glare he had always had on both of us before replying, “No, we do not. I maintain a very safe speed, a lot safer speed than the dang fools who blow their horn and fly on around me, like the one who complained to you. (Didn’t miss a trick, that old man.) I know my own facilities, and if I should ever need to quit driving, I will tell you about it.”
Then he gave his newspaper the trademark shake that signaled disapproval, and the subject was done. Mo looked at me; I looked at him, and like the pig, cow, and sheep in The Little Red Hen, we both screamed silently , “Not I! Not I Not !!”
We had high hopes for the next year, when his license was up for renewal. When he walked out of DMV with a new one, we immediately sought out Laura, the DMV employee who we had been counting on.
“Mo, he passed the vision test with ease. . He passed the written test with a score of 90. Nothing I could do. Sorry.”
He never caused an accident. He never went further than the Food Lion in town, or the barber shop. And, when he died at almost 95, a valid VA driver’s license was in his wallet.
There are some things you just don’t mess with, folks.
It’s an American quickie
What happens when a person falls off a US Navy aircraft carrier?
A carrier will not execute a Williamson turn (or even an Anderson Turn or Scharnow Turn). Imagine bobbing in the water and seeing 90,000 tons of steel bearing down on you as the carrier attempts to “return to the approximate point in the water where the person went over”!
As a Tactical Action Officer, I was responsible for the tactical operation and safety of the ship (not to be confused with the navigational safety of the ship, which is handled from the bridge). The immediate response of the carrier to a man overboard is handled by the bridge and engineering. Basically, as indicated in other responses, if the man overboard call is timely, they will attempt to stop the propellers, and maneuver to clear away from the man.
Under normal conditions, the carrier is accompanied by escort vessels. During flight operations, there is usually a plane guard helicopter (sometimes a plane guard destroyer). Therefore, when a man falls overboard, it is the helicopter or escort vessel that is assigned to recover the person.
In the rare event that the carrier is operating alone (transiting?), then the carrier would come to a stop, and deploy the motor whaleboats to recover the man overboard.
Been there … Done that
When we were transiting home from Japan, we sailed through the tail end of a typhoon. We were alerted that we had a man overboard. However, it was not based on a visual sighting, but from a sailor missing from his post. We came to a stop, and deployed helicopters and escort ships to search for the missing sailor. As noted in other posts, the chances of finding someone, particularly in heavy weather, is very remote. As nightfall approached, we continued the search with helicopters, but ordered the escorts to continue the transit home. After 36 hours, we discontinued the search. Although our escorts had a 24 hour headstart, we were able to kick up our transit speed (one of the benefits of being on a nuclear carrier) and catch up with them before we returned home.
We never found the sailor.
How he got his money
What is the most embarrassing thing that happened to you while you were swimming?
I 18 at the time and I suffered from social anxiety a bit (I was able to go everywhere and do everything, but felt like everybody was watching and judging me so I was extremely shy and inhibited. I overcame that with some help later, luckily).
One morning I woke up earlier than usual and decided to go to the public swimming pool. It was only 7.00 AM when I got there and as expected, there were maybe five other people swimming in that 50*15 m swimming pool, all in their seventies so I was nearly by myself. Great! I was wearing my new swimsuit, rather modestly cut, with broad striped in white and blue.
I swam for half an hour, then I decided to get out and go home. I was approaching the ladder when I noticed that the white stripes were entirely see-through when they were wet. Well, never mind, only a few grannies around, I´ll just be quick.
Then I heard something. I turned around and saw a group of 40 recruits (all men between 18 and 20) had walked in with their instructor and most of them had plenty of time to let their eyes wander around because they were waiting in a queue to jump off the 10m board.
I decided to keep swimming until they left.
(Today I would just get out anyway but as I said, I was having some trouble at the time.)
What was it like seeing the kid you bullied again years later?
In second year high school, there was this kid who we thought he acted flamboyantly gay. He denied, vehemently, being gay, but we all assumed he was. He was mercilessly bullied for it. A different era, different attitude, culture, you name it… it’s no excuse! I stood by and let it happen. Didn’t actually bully the guy, but I did make a joke at his expense once. Made the whole class laugh. Felt good at the time, now makes me think I was a total piece of shit… anyway…
He transferred classes, after a few months of bullying. After that, he changed schools and completely disappeared off the radar altogether. For years, I did not see the guy or know what became of him…
Years later, I ran into him in a restaurant somewhere. He had gotten tall. Really tall. I barely recognized him, his face was completely different, too. He was now muscular. His jaw had gotten wide, he had grown a bit of stubble and he looked very, very handsome and masculine… I was in shock.
I’m not a bad-looking guy myself, nor am I short, but he towered over me and in that moment, he made me feel small. And not because of him being so tall, but because of how genuinely friendly he was, because of how he shook my hand, smiled at me and told me of his life after school, and how he did not seem to carry any resentment…
He was well-dressed, and was doing amazing in his career. He had traveled all around the world, had gotten himself into adventures everywhere. With regards to his personal life, he never volunteered any information, nor did I ask. It really didn’t matter anymore at this point. He cracked jokes, exchanging hearty banter like the best of them, he was genuinely warm and I just felt overwhelmed with guilt and sadness, in awe of what this guy who had once seemed like a helpless victim of our undeserved ridicule had become…
It was hard for me to do so, but eventually, I told him I was sorry for having bullied him. I told him again of the joke I made, he must have remembered, and I apologized. Profusely. He just, nodded.
He told me, and I’ll never forget his words:
“Comments like yours toughened me up to the world. You weren’t anywhere near the worst of them. For years I hated you all, but it pushed me into the gym, and it pushed me to be my best, and now I can face you and say to you I do not hold a single syllable against you. I would not be proud of who I am right now if not for those words you and other said to me.”
The guy we bullied for his perceived lack of masculinity? Turns out in the end, he’s the manliest of all.
Learning
What is that one picture that describes the lowest point in your life?
This picture right here.
I love this picture. I took this picture of me and my fiancee Olivia in March of 2017. We were taking a walk in downtown Greensboro, and I decided I wanted to get a quick picture of us. We were so happy. She had just recently passed the bar and was about to start her first job as a lawyer. I was as proud of her as I could ever be. She had worked so hard to get to this point, and she was about to start seeing the rewards for all of her hard work.
I also hate this picture, because it is the last picture I ever took of us together. Just seven weeks after I took this picture, Olivia was driving home from work when she lost control of her car, slid off of the road and into a tree. She was killed instantly. This picture represents the last time I was happy, the last time I had the love of my life in my life.
The first year after the accident was the worst. I woke up every single day and wondered if this was going to be the day. Would this be the day that I couldn’t think of a reason to keep going? I sank deeper and deeper into depression, I put on 80 pounds, my blood pressure shot through the roof…I thought about killing myself every single day, and every day I found a reason not to do it, but in reality I was slowly killing myself anyway. I was eating myself to death, drinking myself to death…I was in a bottomless pit, and every day it got a little deeper.
That was the first year. There’s no real way of knowing if there would have been a second full year if something hadn’t changed. But then one day, shortly after I got home from work, I got a text from my niece. My niece Caty is my brother’s only child, and she is like a daughter to me. My brother passed away from leukemia 19 years ago, when she was only 4 years old, so I have been the most positive male role model in her life since then. Anyway, Caty had texted me to ask me if I would walk her down the aisle at her wedding later this year.
Suddenly I no longer needed to come up with a new reason to keep going each day, because for the first time in a year I had something to look forward to. I looked at myself in the mirror, and I was disgusted with what I saw. There was no way in hell I was going to walk her down that aisle in the condition I was in. So I went to the doctor, I got on medication for my blood pressure and for my depression, I started eating a little healthier, cut out all of the drinking, and I dropped 100 pounds in a year. I feel healthier now than I have in years.
The depression is still there. The pain, the hurt, the loss, the emptiness…they are all still there. I know they will never go away. The meds help me deal with them, help me to suppress them, but they are still there under the surface. I can function now, so that’s something. So that picture up above, that represents the start of the darkest period in my life, the lowest point in my life. The picture below was taken this past March, almost exactly two years after the one up above.
There’s a lot more gray in my beard now, and a lot less hope in my eyes. I’m almost smiling in this picture, but make no mistake…this picture represents the lowest point in my life. Every single day of the last 781 days has been the lowest day of my life, because it’s been one more day without the love of my life in it.
EDIT: I was trying to reply to all of the comments, even if it was just a simple thank you. I couldn’t keep up, so I decided to reply here instead. Thank you to everyone who took a moment to comment, to give me some kind of words of hope or encouragement. Thank you to everyone who was touched in some way by this, or who cared enough to respond. Thank you to everyone who took the time not just to comment but to send me personal messages of encouragement. And if you read this, even if you didn’t comment or message me or respond in any way, I still say thank you for reading it. For a moment, just that small moment, Olivia’s name was on your mind, you saw her picture, you thought about her, and for just that moment she was remembered. That probably sounds pretty cheesy, but it means more to me than you can imagine.
Update 11/23/19: So I originally posted this answer on July 8th of this year. I added the first update on August 13th, which also happened to be my birthday. I was amazed at the sheer volume of support I received on this one. I had written many different answers where I talked about Olivia, where I shared her story. I got some very sweet and encouraging comments on all of those, and a few messages from people, but nothing like the response I got from this single post. It has been humbling, and it has been beautiful. I have tried to read every single comment and every single message, although I had to stop replying to them all a few months ago. It was just consuming too much of my time. But I want you all to know how much I appreciate every single one of you that has taken the time to reach out, taken the time to let me know that our story touched you in some way. There have also been a few negative comments, some that were even mean, and a fair bit of spam, but the vast majority has been so lovely and encouraging.
So with all of that said, I wanted to give you an update on my life. As I mentioned, I received a lot of messages from people in addition to all the comments I received. I was trying to keep up with them all for a while, trying to send some kind of reply, even if it was only a few words of thanks, but it got to be too much, although I still do read them all. But then a couple of months ago I received a message that gave me pause, and it touched me so much I had to read it a second time. This message was from someone else who had just recently lost their own fiance unexpectedly, who was struggling with the grief and the pain, and just wanted to let me know that my story was inspiring. It brought literal tears to my eyes reading this message, and I felt compelled to reply. I had no idea who this person was , if it was a man or a woman, young or old, I knew nothing other than this was a heart in pain, and I needed to let this person know that I understood, that I grieved for their loss. Maybe try to offer some words of comfort from the perspective of someone who actually understood that pain and knows what words are comforting and what words ring hollow.
I didn’t expect to hear anything back after that initial reply, but to my surprise I got another message, to which I also replied, and pretty soon we were writing each other almost every day, talking about the losses we had both experienced, with me offering words of comfort and advice. This blossomed into a lovely friendship, and we decided to connect on social media as well.
By this point we had learned a lot more about each other. My mystery writer was a beautiful young woman with a beautiful heart. I realized after a while that I was falling for her, which brought me a lot of guilt. Finally one day I went to visit Olivia’s grave, to talk to her, to tell her what I was feeling. I told her that I would always love her, that she would always be the love of my life, and that no one would ever replace her in my heart. I also told her that I needed to continue living, that I need to let this new person create her own place in my heart. I told her that she would never be replaced, but this new woman I was falling in love with would also understand that,and that I would be sharing her heart with her lost love the same way she would share my heart with Olivia. The only thing left to do now was to tell the new woman in my life how I felt.
I got really lucky y’all, because she was feeling the same things. So yeah, we are in love, we are happy, and we are making plans for the future. I will never “get over” Olivia, I will never stop hurting, stop missing her, stop wishing she was still in my life. But that doesn’t mean I can’t love again, that I can’t live again. And I hope that if anyone reads this who has gone through this type of pain, who is still going through it, I hope you take that message away with you. You can find happiness again if you open your heart to the possibility.
Thank you all for your support and encouragement.
5/15/21 – Final Edit: Wow, so much has happened since I wrote my last edit on this answer. Life has changed so much. The world has changed so much. But I did want to provide one last update, at least partially because I received so many comments and PMs requesting another update.
So, in my last update I told you all about how I met another kindred spirit who had gone through the same type of loss that I had, and how we connected and ultimately fell in love. What I didn’t mention at the time, however, was that we had one huge obstacle – we lived 9000 miles apart. See, I was living in Greensboro, NC at the time, and she was living in the Metro Manila region of the Philippines. This made things more difficult, but it was manageable. We spent hours on Skype every single day, talking and getting to know each other, getting closer every day.
We were both anxious to meet in person, so I bought a ticket to fly out to the Philippines and spend a few weeks with her there. There was only one problem…I was scheduled to land there on March 15th, 2020. Anyone who has been, well, awake for the last year should spot the problem there immediately. Yes, the day we were supposed to finally meet was the same day that Manila went on lock down due to the pandemic.
“It’s ok,” we both said, “this will be under control in a month or two, we’ll reschedule then.”
While we waited for everything to get back to normal, we continued to Skype every day. We would start a call after we finished work each day (she works for a company here in the US, so we actually work almost identical hours) and usually be on that call for the rest of the night. During that time I met her family digitally, and she met mine. There were weekends where we would literally have an eight hour Skype call, log off to sleep for a few hours then spend another eight hours on our next call.
Finally, in February of this year, we started looking into alternative options for where we could meet each other. Her coming to the US or me going to the Philippines were both off the table since Visa services were still suspended for both countries, but we knew that there were countries that we could both get Visas for, so we did some research, and settled on Turkey.
And thus, a little over a year after the date we were originally supposed to finally meet one another, we finally met in person at the airport in Istanbul. When I say I was nervous, that is an understatement. I mean, at this point we had known each other for a year and a half, we had helped each other through the worst pain you can imagine, we had fallen in love against all odds…and yet I was nervous. What if we were uncomfortable around each other? What if she saw me in person and realized that she didn’t like what she saw? What if it was all just so awkward? What if…then I saw her. She had arrived a couple of hours before me, and she was waiting near the baggage carousel my luggage was coming in on. As soon as I walked up to her I think we both started crying a little, I wrapped my arms around her, and I swear I never wanted to let go.
We had planned to spend two weeks in Turkey. We ended up staying five weeks instead, and even then neither one of us really wanted to leave. As soon as we were together, all of those fears, all of that nervousness, it was just washed away. Even though it was our first meeting in person, we had already spent a year and a half getting to know each other, and so we were immediately comfortable together, we knew each other so well that within moments of meeting it felt like we had been together for years. And I realized very quickly that I couldn’t imagine my life without her in it.
And so on April 2nd, 2021, just five days after we arrived in Istanbul, I asked her to marry me and she said yes. I am so incredibly happy that I have this amazing, beautiful woman in my life.
There was a time when I felt completely broken. I felt – no, I knew – that I would never love again. I was at my lowest point, I was literally praying each night that I just wouldn’t wake up the next morning. I had no desire to live, felt that I had nothing left to live for. My niece snapped me out of that when she asked me to walk her down the aisle, but I still felt empty, alone. I wasn’t trying to live again, I was simply no longer actively trying to kill myself through neglect and abuse.
Now – now I want to live life, I want to enjoy life, I want to share my life with this amazing woman who understands me in ways no one else ever could, and who accepts me for who I am, flaws and all. She understands how broken I was, because she was broken as well, but somehow when we picked up all of our broken pieces and put them back together, we found that we were actually two halves of the same puzzle.
So – on to the main reason for this final update. I have been so amazed by the level of support this post has received, the number of people who have reached out to share their own stories of loss, and to tell me that my story has given them hope, or at the very least touched something in their heart. That has meant so much to me, more than any of you could possibly know. And after my last update, so many of those people wanted two things…they wanted to hear more stories about me and my new love, my Macy…and they wanted to see a picture of us together. I guess it was kind of a full circle kind of thing – this started with the picture at the lowest point in my life, now they want to see me at my new high point.
How Self Storage Thrives Off The American Dream
"NGOs that have been working in our country for 30 years were not registered anywhere. They were not accountable to anyone. They just opened bank accounts, took money from foreign donors and used it as they saw fit, including for personal purposes. From now on they will be registered with the Ministry of Justice like everyone else. They will open bank accounts. They will start to work openly. There will be no more confusion. The question is why foreign donors against this law. Our non-governmental organizations are deceiving them. They spread false information, saying 'we will be persecuted, we will be arrested as agents of a foreign state'. And the donors believed it. That is why they are asking me not to sign this law. You have been working with foreign donors for 30 years and no one has prosecuted you for taking money. Are we going to start doing that now? As the Head of State, I guarantee there will be no persecution. We are not a nuclear power. We are not going to fly into space yet. Our state has no secrets to hide from you and your donors. All our information is in the public domain. If you can, get billions, not millions. It will only benefit our country. We just want to show everything openly, so that everyone is working on equal terms. Then foreign donors will be able to see how much money has been used and for what projects. And they will not be deceived. Before this, you deceived them by saying that you organized round tables, spent money on training, and implemented projects. Meanwhile, the funds were used for your personal interests. If you say it is not true, I can prove it. Why do non-governmental organizations in developed Western countries register with the Ministry of Justice, the Tax Service, open a bank account and not do the same when they come to us? Or are we a second-class country? No, we are not. We will no longer allow such dubious actions."
Excerpt from the statement by by Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov on his Facebook page regarding the adoption by the Kyrgyz Republic of a law on non-governmental organizations (NGOs), April 2, 2024.
Cranberry-Orange Wings
Yield: 8 to 12 servings
Ingredients
- 3 to 5 pounds chicken wings
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup jellied cranberry sauce, melted
- Dash of Tabasco sauce
Instructions
- Arrange chicken wings in a shallow nonreactive container.
- In a medium size bowl, combine orange juice, soy sauce, cranberry sauce and Tabasco sauce; mix well.
- Pour sauce over chicken wings.
- Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for several hours or overnight. Turn wings occasionally to marinate evenly.
- Lift wings from marinade and place on shallow baking pan.
- Bake in preheated 350 degrees F oven for 50 to 60 minutes, or until tender. Baste frequently with reserved marinade during baking.
Rollo RED PILLED Tim On The DECLINE Of Modern Women!
Don’t Underestimate the World’s Second-Biggest Economy
For over two decades, China’s phenomenal economic performance impressed and alarmed much of the world, including the United States, its top trading partner. But since 2019, China’s sluggish growth has led many observers to conclude that China has already peaked as an economic power.
Those who doubt that China
’s rise will continue point to the country’s weak household spending, its declining private investment, and its entrenched deflation. Sooner than overtake the United States, they argue, China would likely enter a long recession, perhaps even a lost decade.
But this dismissive view of the country underestimates the resilience of its economy. While its growth has slowed in recent years, China is likely to expand at twice the rate of the United States in the years ahead.
MISREADING THE DATA
Several misconceptions undergird the pessimism about China’s economic potential. Take the widely held misconception that the Chinese economy’s progress in converging with the size of the U.S. economy has stalled. It is true that from 2021 to 2023, China’s GDP fell from 76 percent of U.S. GDP to 67 percent. Yet it is also true that by 2023, China’s GDP was 20 percent bigger than it had been in 2019, the eve of the global pandemic, while the United States’ was only 8 percent bigger.
This apparent paradox can be explained by two factors. First, over the last few years, inflation has been lower in China than it has been in the United States. Last year, China’s nominal GDP grew by 4.6 percent, less than the 5.2 percent that its GDP grew in real terms. In contrast, because of high inflation, U.S. nominal GDP in 2023 grew by 6.3 percent, while real GDP grew by only 2.5 percent.
Moreover, the U.S. Federal Reserve has raised interest rates by over five percentage points since March 2022, from 0.25 percent to 5.5 percent, making dollar-denominated assets more attractive to global investors and boosting the value of the dollar relative to alternative currencies. Meanwhile, China’s central bank cut its base interest rate from 3.70 percent to 3.45 percent. The growing gap between Chinese and U.S. interest rates reversed what had been a large inflow of foreign capital into China, ultimately depressing the value of the renminbi vis-à-vis the dollar by ten percent. Converting a smaller nominal GDP to dollars at a weakened exchange rate results in a decline in the value of China’s GDP when measured in dollars relative to U.S. GDP.
But these two factors are likely to be transitory. U.S. interest rates are now declining relative to rates in China, reducing the incentive of investors to convert renminbi into dollar-denominated assets. As a result, the depreciation of the Chinese currency has begun to reverse. The International Monetary Fund forecasts that Chinese prices will pick up this year, which would boost China’s GDP measured in renminbi. Its nominal GDP measured in U.S. dollars will almost certainly resume converging toward that of the United States this year and is likely to surpass it in about a decade.
A second misconception is that household income, spending, and consumer confidence in China is weak. The data do not support this view. Last year, real per capita income rose by 6 percent, more than double the growth rate in 2022, when the country was in lockdown, and per capita consumption climbed by nine percent. If consumer confidence were weak, households would curtail consumption, building up their savings instead. But Chinese households did just the opposite last year: consumption grew more than income, which is possible only if households reduced the share of their income going to savings.
A third misconception is that price deflation has become entrenched in China, putting the country on course toward recession. Yes, consumer prices rose only 0.2 percent last year, which gave rise to the fear that households would reduce consumption in anticipation of still lower prices—thereby reducing demand and slowing growth. This has not happened because core consumer prices (meaning those for goods and services besides food and energy) actually increased by 0.7 percent.
The prices of tools and raw materials used to produce other goods did fall in 2023, reflecting global declines in the price of energy and other internationally traded commodities as well as relatively weak demand in China for some industrial goods, potentially undermining the incentive for firms to invest in expanding their productive capacity. Rather than pump money into their businesses, the thinking went, companies would use their declining profits to pay down debt. But here, too, the very opposite came to pass: Chinese corporations ramped up borrowing, both in absolute terms and as a share of GDP. And investment in manufacturing, mining, utilities, and services increased. No recession appears on the horizon.
Another misconception concerns the potential for a collapse in property investment. These fears are not entirely misplaced; they are supported by data on housing starts, the number of new buildings on which construction has begun, which in 2023 was half what it was in 2021. But one has to look at the context. In that same two-year period, real estate investment fell by only 20 percent, as developers allocated a greater share of such outlays to completing housing projects they had started in earlier years. Completions expanded to 7.8 billion square feet in 2023, eclipsing housing starts for the first time. It helped that government policy encouraged banks to lend specifically to housing projects that were almost finished; a general easing of such constraints on bank loans to property developers would have compounded the property glut.
Finally, there is the misconception that Chinese entrepreneurs are discouraged and moving their money out of the country. Undoubtedly, the government crackdown that began in late 2020 on large private companies, notably Alibaba, did not help matters. From the beginning of economic reform in 1978 through the mid-2010s, private investment in China grew more rapidly than investment by state-owned firms. By 2014, private investment composed almost 60 percent of all investment—up from virtually zero percent in 1978. As private investment is generally more productive than that of state companies, its expanding share of total investment was critical to China’s rapid growth over this period. This trend went into reverse after 2014 when Xi Jinping
, having just assumed the top leadership position, aggressively redirected resources to the state sector. The slowdown was modest at first, but by 2023, private investment accounted for only 50 percent of total investment. Xi had undermined investor confidence; entrepreneurs no longer saw the government as a dependable steward of the economy. So long as Xi is in power, runs a common argument, entrepreneurs will continue to hold back on investing in China, opting instead to funnel their wealth out of the country.
But here again, the pessimism is not supported by the data. First, almost all the decline in the private share of total investment after 2014 resulted from a correction in the property market, which is dominated by private companies. When real estate is excluded, private investment rose by almost ten percent in 2023. Although some prominent Chinese entrepreneurs have left the country, more than 30 million private companies remain and continue to invest. Moreover, the number of family businesses, which are not officially classified as companies, expanded by 23 million in 2023, reaching a total of 124 million enterprises employing about 300 million people.
REAL CHALLENGES AHEAD
Although China is beset by many problems, including those resulting from Xi’s efforts to exert greater control over the economy, exaggerating these problems serves no one. It could even lead to complacency in the face of the very real challenges that China presents to the West.
That is particularly true for the United States. China will likely continue to contribute about a third of the world’s economic growth while increasing its economic footprint, particularly in Asia. If U.S. policymakers underappreciate this, they are likely to overestimate their own ability to sustain the deepening of economic and security ties with Asian partners.
Andrew speaks his piece
Does not being a graduate from IIT or NIT qualify you as a loser for life?
I believe there are only five reasons why you can be a LOSER in life :-
- Didn’t work or deliver your whole potential & still don’t recognize that
- Burying your head in the sand. Not recognizing or accepting weaknesses and faults or making excuses
- Hitting a woman no matter how grave the provocation (Male). Filing a false case of Dowry Harrassment against In Laws (Female)
- Whitewashing the crimes of the White Man perpetrated on the world in greed for his dollars.
- Shamelessly fawning on people who make 20 Crore to enable them to make 200 Crore a year while you make 2 Lakh a year
Nobody else is a LOSER
When I was a Student, we considered ECONOMICS to be a part of ARTS
Today the whole world acknowledges that Economics is a SCIENCE and has a lot of Math & Calculus too.
Likewise we regard Language to be a part of the Arts, however the same language is used for Ciphers and Cryptography and shows how it can be used for SCIENCE
Accountancy was once regarded different from Science but now it’s clear Accounting has a manner and method to it
Even Marketing and Sales has its own Strategy that is based and steeped in SCIENCE
My point is :-
Your brain must be steeped and honed properly
You must see manner and method in everything
Even Cooking has a lot of Science
The very fact that hot milk dissolves more sugar than cold milk is a science involving solubility of solutions
Apply logic without blindly following statements. Assume every Statement is a lie and use logic to prove it it possibly true.
You do this and that’s all you need in life for a superior brain
IIT, NITs are just alphabets in such a case
America today
What is nightlife in Japan like?
Let’s say you finish work at 6 pm.
Congratulations! You’ve managed to clear that pile of work within regular hours. Today was indeed a productive day.
As you close your laptop and prepare to leave, you notice your boss still at his desk, along with most of your colleagues.
If you’ve been in Japan long enough, this sight should remind you to sit back down and unpack your bag quietly.
Do you have plans to meet your girlfriend? Text her next time.
Did you make dinner reservations? Convenience store food is enough for you.
Do you have a TV show you were looking forward to? You’ll catch the rerun online later.
Your nightlife is right here — staying at the office with everyone until the bosses leave.
This is the nightlife that matters most to you.
In the Japanese workplace, there’s a common practice of “pretend overtime.”
This includes situations where you might be there for extended hours without accomplishing much or feeling pressured to stay late just because your boss hasn’t left yet.
- Even if you’ve completed your tasks for the day on schedule, you’re not permitted to leave until your boss says, “You can go home now.” Until your supervisor clocks out, you’re stuck at the office, even if you’re sitting there idly. You end up staying until late into the night, finding ways to pass the time, like reading manuals or making memo pads out of scrap paper.
- You’re not allowed to leave until your boss leaves the office, and it’s essential to make sure your boss sees you reading documents or typing on your keyboard. If your boss asks, “Aren’t you leaving yet?” you respond by saying there are still a few things you need to prepare; thus, he recognizes your “presence.”
- You don’t have much work that requires overtime. If you work efficiently, you can get it done before the end of the workday. You’re not looking to be your boss’s favorite, but you worry that people might perceive you as lacking ambition and dedication if you don’t do what others are doing. So, you end up staying in the office instead of leaving, even when you could.
In Japan, it’s common for companies to equate working overtime with dedication and hard work. The longer you stay at the office into the night, the more committed you appear.
Look, it’s time to hop onto the last train home.
Welcome to our unique nightlife culture.
Pre-birth world-line template
What was the reason for your migration?
I usually migrated for career reasons:
- from Germany to Canada because I got into a university there;
- from Canada to the US because I got a first job offer there;
- from the US to France because I got a better job offer there;
- from France back to Germany because I got into a master’s program there;
- from Germany to England because I was offered a full-time lecturer position there;
- from England to New Zealand because I was offered a position as academic leader at a university there;
- from New Zealand to China and India because I was offered a position as a dean at a university there, in the employ of a French university.
That was the pinnacle of the achievable in my career. After that, feeling like I no longer needed to prove anything, I decided I’d now find a position somewhere in the comfortable middle field of my career, where I would benefit from my experience without getting too stressed out, in a reasonable country that I loved.
So I went back to England as a senior lecturer at a university, and lived and worked there happily while maintaining a holiday home in Sweden, where my Chinese wife and I went during the long summer and winter holidays.
And then Brexit came, taking away all the certainties of my position in England and all the research funding and partnerships, so the time had come again to move to secure my professional future, and I eventually found a senior lecturer position at a university in Sweden, in commuting distance of my house.
Long story shot: Dangling carrots at first, long term outlook and sympathy later were what made me migrate.
I think it’s what most people migrate for: A better life. Not that mine would have been bad where I was. But when you can get better, well… of course you go.
And of course it wasn’t only for the CV. Often, there were romantic notions attached, a sense of adventure, the thought that a new world with a different language, culture, climate, and cuisine would be inspiring to experience.
Obsolete Car Features From The Past
If you could choose one defunct automotive manufacturer to revive as a brand, which company would you choose and why?
I sort of miss Oldsmobile.
They were always an interesting, understated brand with nice cars that seemed a bit like Buicks for people with university degrees. Especially the Toronado, I thought, was wonderful. An interesting and different sort of car, with front wheel drive at a time when not many dared, and especially not in conjunction with a big V8 engine.
I had two Oldsmobiles myself. One of them, a 1973 Delta 88, was a real miracle of reliability and economy for its age and size.
I also lament that Pontiac is gone, having one myself. It always seemed like Chevrolet with an apache flavour to me. The Native American brand, if you will. That was cool.
Mine is just a dressed up Caprice for the Canadian market, but it does have that vibe.
And then, there’s Saab.
I can’t believe it’s gone. It used to be the other defining agent in the Swedish car duality game. It’s as if someone were to remove Holden or Ford from the Australian context. Such a huge vacuum has been left.
Maybe they can come back as hydrogen hybrids some day.
Teen Opera Singer Reacts To Dio – Last In Line
Dio and I are the same age. Too bad he passed on. This is a wonderful reaction. Not too many interruptions, and genuine love.
What was the most brutal military tactic in history?
I am going to tell my favorite Roman story here. One of those events that is just so weird it sticks with you forever. It was a brutal moment in history and one very few people have been heard of.
Background
The Romans first invaded Britain when Julius Caesar set about conquering the Island. He found that it was poor, hard to get to, and packed with warlike tribes. So after winning a few battles he appointed the local leader a “vassal” of Rome and left.
This didn’t stick and the Romans forgot about Britannia for many decades.
Then Claudius takes the throne some 80 years later. Claudius is smart, wise, and careful but the people of Rome consider him a weak idiot. So to win glory Claudius invades Britannia and adds it to the Empire as a new province.
Things do not go very smoothly though.
The locals are not very cool with their land being conquered and they resist. In addition, Britannia is far away and Rome has to make significant efforts to convince Romans to colonize Britannia.
The largest tribe, the Iceni, remain somewhat independent. When their chief dies in 60 AD he leaves his lands to the Romans and his 2 daughters. This is meant to serve as a peaceful transition into the Roman Empire with his daughter still at the head of the tribe.
The Romans don’t see it this way though and move in on Iceni lands. They began to pillage Iceni lands, taking the men as slaves and raping the women. The chief’s daughters were also raped. When their mother, a woman named Boudica, tried to stop the Romans she was stripped naked publicly and whipped.
This horrid action would have consequences though.
Now 17 years after Rome first established itself on the island things would escalate quickly and one of the most brutal chapters in Roman history began.
My favorite part
Gaius Suetonius Paulinus is the governor of Britain. He is a man of middling skill but he is loyal and capable enough. His goal is to establish Roman control over the island
Paulinus has a plan to establish more control over Britain. There is an island off the Northern coast of Wales that has extreme religious significance to the locals. If he could control that island he could establish more control over the locals.
With a legion in tow, he sets out to conquer the Island (Anglesey).
As the Romans arrive off the shore and start moving to the beach they notice something strange. On the shore, there are people – thousands of them.
These men aren’t warriors though. They are dressed in black and reaching their hands towards the while and chanting. In between the ranks of chanting people, there are women, cloaked in black and dashing about with torches.
The sight is shocking and the Romans freeze – nobody knows what to make of it so they just stare in fear.
The women start screaming like animals and begin to charge towards the Romans.
Still the Romans are frozen at the sight.
Paulinus starts to shout insults at the men to get them moving. The legions advanced and cut the women to pieces – it is no contest.
The Romans then make it to shore and cut down the men that were chanting
After a few minutes, the beach is taken and the Romans look around. They soon notice they are not standing on a beach, they are standing on a giant funeral pyre.
A torch-wielding woman then appears and lights the pyre. The many injured druids are engulfed by the flames and cry out in agony.
The Romans now realize what happened. They had just been tricked into engaging in a religious act of human sacrifice.
This TERRIFIED THEM beyond what we can imagine.
You see, the Romans were a religious/superstitious bunch. They believed that the gods of foreigners were as real as their own. Curses, sacrifices, and deals with the gods were all totally valid things in the Roman world.
To them – this was going to have a significant impact on the world around them.
Stories started flooding in that rivers were running red for no reason and that a statue of Mars collapsed without cause.
The Romans in Britain were afraid.
The Druid gods appreciated the sacrifice because things suddenly shifted drastically in favor of the local peoples.
Boudica, the wife of the dead Iceni chief, had taken to the warpath. She gathered the local leaders and tribes and they decided to revolt and cast off the influence of Rome.
They didn’t even farm that year. They dedicated themselves entirely to preparing for war.
When they were ready they struck hard and fast.
Boudica first struck Camulodonum. As the leaders of Camulodonum noticed the approaching army the requested help from Longthroppe and Londinium (modern London).
Longthroppe took it seriously and sent their garrison but Londinium only sent 200 unarmed slaves as an insult.
When the garrison from Longthorpe arrived it was too late. The city of Camulodonum was destroyed completely. Every single person was killed. The women were raped, the men were slaughtered, and the city was looted.
It is recorded that the Roman women were hung up naked and had their removed breasts sewed to their mouths so it appeared as though they were eating them.
It was horrific. This garrison from Longthorpe thought they were dealing with a smaller revolt. To their horror, they found the entire Iceni tribe mobilized– some 75,000 warriors. The garrison was immediately overwhelmed and ran for their lives.
Paulinus now gets word what is happening. He takes his men and heads straight for Boudica.
He requests that the second legion on the island join him, but they refuse. So he requests that every retired legionary able to hold a sword join his ranks immediately.
With this his army swells to 10,000 – but he is still drastically outnumbered.
Boudica now arrives at Londinium and repeats her actions at Camulodonum.
Boudica’s plan was clear – ethnic cleansing.
Paulinus decides to try and save lives. He begins going city to city and evacuating citizens whenever possible. Boudica is in hot pursuit of his small army and the thousands of refugees are weighing him down.
Paulinus gives up. He tells the refugees to continue North and he turns to fight. He decides that dying in battle is preferable to being tortured by Boudica.
Paulinus sets himself up in the best spot he can find. Thick marshes protect his flanks and he gets his men into a sawblade formation.
Boudica’s army is at least 7 times larger than the Roman army. Many of them now have captured Roman gear as well.
She decides to charge and overwhelm them. It seems logical – crush this small army under the weight of 75,000 warriors. She takes her wagons and forms a circle around the battlefield to prevent her army and the Roman army from retreating.
Big mistake.
The Romans were the kings of this style of warfare. Their training, tactics, and heavy armor all favored prolonged head-on clashes.
Boudica’s army charges in and engages with the Romans. As usual, the Romans stab, slice, and kill from behind their big shields. Every few minutes the man at the front heads to the back while the next guy in line takes over. This keeps the men fighting fresh and allows those that just fought some time to rest.
Paulinus orders his men forward and they begin moving forward 1 step at a time.
Boudica’s forces start to get desperate. The Roman momentum is insane – they just keep coming forward and nothing Boudica does can stop them. Thousands are already dead and morale is dropping.
When a break in the battle finally happens Boudica orders a retreat.
But the wagons create choke points and the retreat turns into a mad dash for safety.
The Romans surge forward killing everything in their path. It’s a slaughter. They massacre their enemies by the thousands – pressing them against the carts and cutting them down.
Almost the entire 80,000 strong army is killed, while the Romans lose a mere 400–1000.
Boudica – totally defeated – takes poison to kill herself. The Romans now have full control over the Southern part of Britain.
The brutality of this episode is shocking even by Roman standards.
First, you have the Romans raping and enslaving an entire tribe without provocation.
Then you have a mass ritual human sacrifice accidentally committed by the Romans.
Then Boudica starts a campaign of ethnic cleansing.
Then one of the largest battles in Roman history happens and 80,000 people are cut down.
I would say it is the most brutal episode of Roman history.
California Fast-Food Outlets CUT Jobs & BOOST Prices Ahead of $20/hr Minimum Wage Rollout
What do you think of the Fox News host who explained that the world was suffering from the coronavirus because the Chinese Communist Party cannot feed its people, who have resorted to eating raw bats and snakes?
Logically it makes no sense.
How do poor people afford meat when grain is a luxury?
Unless one deliberately goes into the wild or lives in some secluded corner of nowhere, there are no bats and snakes aplenty.
Unless, of course, these species are being farmed for food.
Which makes no sense because snakes are slow growing and bats are difficult to raise. Besides the protein haul is miserable compared to chickens and pigs per unit of resource.
Any way you look at it, these are luxury items that only the rich can afford, because the poor will rather sell their catch rather than consume bounty.
Anyone who finds exotic food cheaper than regular tofu, please leave a comment. That will be the bargain of the century.
Does the Fox anchor even know how much a snake gallbladder costs???!!!
Note: There are families in Yunnan that can only afford rice a few times a year, and meat only once. The rest of the year consists of corn, roots, fruit and vegetables.
Different Kind
Rabies is a terminal illness, once a dog starts to show symptoms of the disease, there is no cure but to euthanize the dog, for the greater good of neighborhood. A rabies ridden dog not only suffers himself, but also poses a danger of instability and greater harm to those around him.
You cannot “reason” a rabid dog out of his illness.
Similarly you cannot reason with Israel and apologists, both Israel, majority of Israeli society and its apologists abroad, have pre-emptively convinced themselves that, whatever Israel does on Gaza, will always be justified.
No matter how many civilians, aid workers or doctors are killed, or how many hospitals are destroyed, that will always be justified in eyes of Israel’s apologists, there will always be a “khamas base” if not in Al-shifa hospital, then in 4 year old Palestinian child’s skull.
Only way to stop this genocidal state from killing more innocent souls, is NOT A CEASEFIRE, but bowing it into submission by force and sanctions
Just hours after destroying the largest hosptial in Gaza (al Shifa hospital), IDF targeted and killed European aid workers who were delivering food to Palestinians in Gaza.
Guys will never get over it
What are some crazy facts about intelligent people?
- Intelligent people are always curious about the world.
- Being funny and having a good sense of humor are both signs of intelligence.
- Staying up late is an indication of high intellect, as it indicates that their brain activity is boosted at night.
- People that are very intelligent have fewer friends than the ordinary person.
- They have a greater sense of self-doubt than ignorant people.
- Self-talk is an evidence of people who are highly INTELLIGENT.
- Intelligence is not determined by grades or age.
- Socially awkward people are highly intelligent.
- People who are intelligent are less likely to engage in conflict. They pay attention to everything but rarely say anything.
- Worrying excessively is linked to high intelligence.
How can you inspire programmers to work longer work weeks voluntarily?
Having been through several startups over the years, I am stunned at how many executives are openly and publicly contemptuous of developers and then expect them to put in long hours. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve heard sayings such as, “I can lock the developers in a room, slide pizzas under the door, and in a month I’ll have a product.” Thinking of the people who create your product as second-class employees comes through, and most definitely does not motivate them.
At one company, where I was the VP of Engineering, we got a new CEO who told me to get the developers working longer hours. I asked why. He said that that’s what developers at a startup should do. I asked him for anything goal-oriented with which to motivate the team, which was already largely burned out from some heroic pre-launch efforts. Did we have a new sales prospect with a feature request, or did we have some new competitive intelligence that demanded a big push to catch up, or anything to justify again burning the midnight oil? No, the CEO just thought that’s what developers should do.
Developers aren’t idiots. They can tell the difference between a legitimate crunch time and a CEO who is merely cheap and demanding. So, it’s probably obvious where I’m going with this: Just wanting more hours for no good reason will just piss the developers off. If you do have a good reason for long hours, then the answer is to simply share the reason with the team. I’ve seen developers do amazing things to deliver to a key customer on time, or have something ready for a big trade show, or otherwise come through for the company. But it has to be something real, not just an arbitrary desire to squeeze employees for more work.
Returning to Rainbow and Dio! Vocal ANALYSIS of “Mistreated” Live!
What are your thoughts on ex-Taiwanese President Ma visiting China to help build social and cultural links? Will he be successful?
95% of the people of Taiwan are Han Chinese, and Taiwan and the Mainland of China are of the same ethnicity, and the cultural and economic ties among the people have never ceased.
MA Ying-jeou remains a supporter of maintaining the separation of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait rather than a supporter of cross-strait unification.
He cannot achieve political success if he consistently positions himself as a political figure who obstructs and delays the reunification of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.
The purpose of his visit to Mainland China was expressed before he boarded the plane：
I will try my best to convey the peace-loving wishes of the Taiwan people and hope that both sides will expand bilateral exchanges and avoid war. This is a journey of peace and a journey of friendship.
It can be seen that Ma Ying-jeou’s own positioning of this trip is not a unification trip, and Ma Ying-jeou has been avoiding the word “unification”. It is hypocritical to talk about “peace” without talking about “unification”.
It is only because of the recent vicious incident in which two mainland fishermen were killed by the DPP in Kinmen, the Taiwan authorities felt the danger of war, and Ma Ying-jeou took the initiative to act as a “peacemaker”.
Of course, there are still a few days left in Ma’s visit programme, the most crucial of which is the last day of meetings with the top brass in mainland China. It is too early to speculate on Ma Ying-jeou’s inner thoughts.
If Ma Ying-jeou wants to achieve political success, this visit is his last chance!
We hope he will be bold enough to take the first step and say the word “reunification”.
Some fun pictures that I generated
What ignorant thing did a retail employee say that made you walk out of the store without buying a single item?
My ex and I used to live on Capitol Hill in DC. Almost all the houses there are 100+ years old, so there is generally something in need of fixing at any given time. We felt it was a good thing to try and support local businesses, so whenever anything small broke, we tried to use the local hardware store to get whatever we needed to repair it. Well, something small broke and we needed a small piece of pipe to replace one under a bathroom sink. If anyone has lived on the Hill in the past, they probably know that there is only one local hardware store. It had almost criminally narrow aisles until it burned to the ground several years ago. It has since been rebuilt with a much better layout.
Off we went to the local hardware store, broken piece in hand. we were faced with bins of nearly identical looking pieces. The store was often understaffed, so we were trying to compare the pieces ourselves to find the right one. As we stood there, an employee came walking down the aisle. Rather than stop to help us (though to be fair he may have been in the middle of helping someone else at the time) or politely excusing himself as he tried to squeeze around us, he just stopped, looked at us, and sarcastically sneered “do you think you could take this party somewhere else?”
My ex had worked retail for years, and was a district manager for a home goods chain at the time. We just looked at each other, put down the pieces we were trying to match, and said “sure. We can take it to Home Depot.” And that’s what we did. We made sure to let the manager know what we were doing and why before we left.