I inherited my paternal grandfathers bayonet. He was an American soldier fighting the Germans in France during world war I.
The story behind this bayonet is that he got it off of a German that he killed. The thing about the bayonet is that the blade was caked with this thick blood-like substance. No one knew what it was, though we all suspected that the goo was the remains of people that the German gutted out.
Now, this was a gutting blade. The top was serrated and designed to pull out the guts like a saw-tooth blade.
Eventually, my bother took the blade and claimed it as his own. He cleaned it up and it is somewhere in his house in Colorado.
And… I forgot about it. It’s just a thing. A part of someone else’s life. But, you know, every now and then I start to wonder about the blade and the story behind it.
No clear answer though.
‘A LOT OF PIFFLE’: THE GERMAN SAWBACK BAYONET
The German Sawback Bayonet of the First World War: Myth and Reality
No other hand-held weapon of the First World War has sparked so much debate and gave rise to so many myths and legends than the German Sägerücken or sawback bayonet. Even today the collectors market, historians and even the press still spread those myths that were born 115 years ago by the Allied press. In this article we will take a new and fresh look on the iconic weapon, its history and the wave of propaganda it caused in 1914.
SÄGERÜCKEN – THE SAWBACK BAYONET
The first ‘German’ sword bayonet which could be affixed to a long arm was introduced in Prussia in 1810. Used by the kingdom’s elite, light Jäger (hunter) infantry it was designated as a Hirschfänger (lit: ‘stag catcher’, or hunting knife). It would take another 50 years until the introduction of what could be called the first modern sword bayonet for regular infantry units, the M1860 Füsilier-Seitengewehr. With the introduction of the Mauser M71 bolt action rifle and its matching bayonet in the German Army, the first sawback or Sägerücken bayonets were introduced en masse to replace the Faschinenmesser, the fascine knife. This edged weapon, with a serrated or straight edge, was an engineering and foraging tool designed to cut forage and firewood, to remove foliage, and – thus the name – to cut “fascines”, brushwood bundles bundles used for strengthening earthen structures and field fortifications or for making a path across uneven or wet terrain.
At the outbreak of the First World War the German Army moved into the field with a wide range of bayonet types, all of which were available in a saw-backed version. They were issued to Pionier (engineer) units and, in a small percentage, distributed among other army line units. Then they were still being used as tools to cut wood and to efficiently saw through wooden barbed wire stakes, which were later replaced by metal ones. In that role they could be used as a handheld, but also as a rifle-mounted saw. Used in the latter way it was much more efficient, allowing it to cut through a thick, wooden barbed wire pole in about 30 seconds (using the long M98 saw-bayonet). Many other nations had made use of bayonets of a similar kind, including the British (with the Elcho and P1879 Martini-Henry sword bayonets) and the Swiss in 1878, all of these weapons designed to replace the fascine knives carried by soldiers in earlier periods.
At the turn of the century, military logistics and supply for forces in the field had evolved so far that the need for foraging tools had diminished. Saw backed bayonets were inferior in combat as the serrated edge could get caught or entangled in clothing, while the sharp saw itself could easily cause wounds to an inexperienced user. When war broke out in 1914 they had been made redundant in the British Army. The German Army, with its doctrine of flexibility in the field, had retained them and still saw them as an important addition to its forces.
A SAVAGE WEAPON?
The sawback bayonet was a gift to the Allies, who from a very early date set their propaganda machine to work, tying the use of the weapon into the context of the so-called ‘rape of Belgium’ , feeding the notion that the barbaric weapon had been specifically developed as brutal refinement for use in close combat. Sawback bayonets it was suggested, inflicted painful, never-healing wounds and even worse, as a French propaganda booklet with the title of ‘Les armes déloyales des allemands’ (the unfair weapons of the Germans) explained in 1916:
“In some German infantry units and throughout the pioneer corps, some men are armed with a bayonet sword, with a flat and wide blade, one edge is sharp while the other is sawtoothed. Officially it is a portable tool, intended to act in the twin role of saw and sword of battle, according to the way it is used. In reality, it is a very dangerous weapon, which, when held at the end of the rifle, inflicts a wound much more serious than that caused by ordinary bayonets in that it produces tearing effects when a soldier pulls to remove it from the body of an enemy. But German officers know how to refine barbarity. There is a standing order to all men armed with the bayonet-saw never to attack without having taken the precaution of repeatedly driving the blade in the loose soil, so that the particles of earth clinging to the saw will lead to an infection of the wounds inflicted on the enemy. This thoughtful and scientific cruelty is sometimes perfected even further. During an attack in Artois, a German company was taken under the fire of our machine guns and completely destroyed: ours having progressed and conquered the ground, had the obligation to bury the enemy dead and it was then possible to note that all the saw bayonets of the massacred men were coated with faeces. It demands no further explanation what horrendous complications of sepsis and infection wounds caused by a weapon like this would lead to.”
First brief mentions of German ‘bayonets with teeth’ can be found in the British Daily Mail and a number of US newspapers between 20-22 August 1914. Yet the first dedicated, longer piece on the sawback bayonet was published – to the author’s best knowledge – by the French Le Matin newspaper on 13 September 1914. It featured a photo of the serrated blade of a German M98 bayonet and a report, which seems to have formed the basis of virtually all later French and British reports and the root of the propaganda hype that followed:
‘They will soon have done everything, these Germans, to be banished from humanity, and it will soon be clear to everyone that their armies are nothing but hordes of barbarians, vile herds of wild beasts. Today you can see with this kind of weapon they intend to prevail over their enemies. Here is the photograph of a sword bayonet collected yesterday among the dead of the 47th regiment of Prussian infantry in Varreddes, a small village located about 8 kilometers north of the city of Meaux. This bayonet has two lines of sawtooth on its back. And it is not the cruel fantasy of a single, barbarian soldier who has created this weapon worthy of a Malay for his own use; no, because many others lay scattered on the ground and some have been picked up by officials to be shown to the public. It is clear that they have been machine-made and that this cruelty has an official origin. A torture device; a bayonet with hooks; a dishonourable weapon: a violation which S.M. Emperor William had provided his soldiers with.’
Even though Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 47 had never been in action anywhere near Varreddes (serving around Les Eparges about 250 kilometres away), some sawback bayonets had certainly been found, after all the whole of the German Army was equipped with them. The news travelled quickly and seems to have crossed the Atlantic first, even before reaching the United Kingdom. The New York Tribune ran it as front page news on 19 September. Their correspondent Richard Harding Davis, attached to the French Army, gave a detailed testimony about what had been found. a bayonet which ‘tears the flesh and splinters the bone’ and ‘the most gruesome weapon of war ever issued to a civilised army’.
From the United States the news travelled. and from the second half of September up to November 1914 the British press covered the subject extensively, often using new eyewitness accounts and photographs. On 27 September .The People newspaper published a photograph of a British medical officer comparing a British P07 Enfield bayonet to a German 98/05 sawback, reporting that these weapons were used ‘in violation of the laws of war’ and in breach to the ‘Convention to which Germany is a signatory’.
While the press coverage spread out, postcards were published in France showing a German soldier – with a sawback bayonet attached to his rifle – being addressed by a member of what people at the time would have seen as a savage race, a native American warrior. The postcards were captioned ‘La Baïonnette Scie’ and bore the slogan ‘Tu es encore plus sauvage que moi!’ (You are even more savage than me). French depictions of German sawback bayonets turned things upside down completely, showing the blade (!) of the bayonet sporting a serrated edge.
Surprisingly, some publications both in England and in France, also published truthful features about the actual use of the weapon. The Illustrated War News of 18 November printed a large format photo of a German soldier holding a rifle with a saw-tooth bayonet which rightly claimed that the bayonet was similar to that carried by ‘British naval landing parties for use in sawing wood’; while the French journal L’Ouest-Éclair stated that the ‘bayonet-saw is used to saw the wood in the countryside to make fires and employed in a variety of manual attack or defence work.’
‘(…) when a man has eight inches of smooth blade in him, an inch or two of jagged teeth would not matter’.
Some newspapers published reader’s letters on the bayonet. Doctor Hirsch, a native German, then working a psychiatrist in New York, wrote to the Tribune that he himself had served in the German Army in 1878/79 and that the whole story like ‘so many other statements about the -brutality- of the German Army are based on utter ignorance of the real facts’. He described the weapon’s use as a pioneer tool while criticising the paper’s malevolent coverage. In fact, some the best and most neutral words about the case, were published in the form of reader’s letters. One, written in Mounie Castle, Oldmeldrum by a Major Seton and published by The Aberdeen Daily Journal stated that: ‘Regarding the tooth-edged bayonet, about which you quote from the Paris ‘Matin’ as being among the atrocities of the Kaiser and his ‘Huns’, may I say that such allegations are merely the ravings of an hysterical Frenchman?’. Another, sent to the Liverpool Daily Post and Mercury opened with the statement that ‘A lot of piffle has been written about the German saw-bayonet’ and closed with the observation that ‘when a man has eight inches of smooth blade in him an inch or two of jagged teeth would not matter’. By mid-1915 there are no mentions of the saw-bayonet anymore. The explosive value of the story had fizzled out.
Yet the damage had been done and the propaganda was beginning to have a noteworthy effect on the Germans. Even though never based on any actual truth, rumours had begun to circulate that the Allies would shoot or torture prisoners carrying a saw-bayonet. Even though there have never been any documented cases of this behaviour and even an official German inquest in July 1915 and another in April 1917 could not find any evidence of this, it became an often told story in the army. Ernst Jünger mentioned it and Erich Maria Remarque used it in his famous anti-war novel All Quiet on the Western Front: ‘We overhaul the bayonets–that is to say, the ones that have a saw on the blunt edge. If the fellows over there catch a man with one of those he’s killed at sight. In the next sector some of our men were found whose noses were cut off and their eyes poked out with their own saw-bayonets. Their mouths and noses were stuffed with sawdust so that they suffocated’.
REMOVING THE SAW
German soldiers soon began to ‘lose’ their sawback bayonets in inexplainable numbers, while others began to remove the saw backs on their own accord, thus often permanently damaging the blade and as such property of the German Empire. By 1917, with the large-scale use of metal barbed wire pickets, the bayonet-saw had lost its only real remaining use and German soldiers had realised, that the saw could slow retrieval of the blade in combat. The wounds a sawback bayonet caused were not worse that those created by regular blade, and as such the use of them had never violated any rules of war, yet faced with the mass loss of good bayonets and knowing about the weapon’s deficiencies. the OHL (Oberste Heeresleitung, Supreme Army Command) issued an order on 16 September 1917. which decreed that all sawback bayonets were to be withdrawn from service in frontline formations, to be replaced by regular bayonets. To satisfy the need for a sawing tool the so called Noris-Säge, a segmented and much more effective saw, was issued. Formations serving in rearward areas, garrison and replacement units and formations serving within the borders of the Reich continued carrying the sawback. Surplus was put into storage. Yet in a war of materiel and in the face of serious metal shortages, having a large stock of unusable bayonets was something Germany could not afford. Trials had shown that bayonets with ground-away saws could be used without disadvantage, so on 6 January 1918 order was given to grind away the saws. The bayonets treated in that manner were designated “S.Abg.” (Säge abgeschliffen – saw removed) and were again issued to frontline units. Yet this was only done with a fraction of the available weapons and most of that work was done when stock was used to equip the new Reichswehr from 1920.
THE PRESENT DAY: THE ‘PIFFLE’ CONTINUES
Even today a ‘lot of piffle’ is still being spread about the savage nature of the sawback bayonet in books and other publications, and that is probably the reason why prices collectors are willing to pay for the acquisition of a nice Sägerücken continue to soar. However, they are not as rare as militaria collector’s and dealers wants us to believe. Most saws were never ground out, and today a bayonet with the saw removed is a lot more difficult to find than one with a surviving saw. Yet the fascination radiating from a shiny, saw-toothed back of a German 98/05 bayonet and the piffle attached to them is certainly real. As such they rightfully continue to hold special places in bayonet collections all over the world.
Today…
China’s young people are ‘revenge saving’ even as Gen Zers around the world are piling up debt
PUBLISHED MON, JUL 1 2024
7:54 PM EDT
KEY POINTS
- Revenge saving has become a trend on Chinese social media websites, with Chinese youth setting extreme monthly savings targets.
- Savings measures also include dining at community canteens usually for the elderly, where fresh meals are sold at relatively cheap prices.
- Others are finding “savings partners” on social media, forming circles that ensure members stick with their savings goals.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/02/chinas-young-are-revenge-saving-even-as-other-gen-zers-pile-up-debt.html
Why is China’s rise so hard for the US to counter?
There’s a few reasons, but I’m going to highlight one particular challenge the US has: the nature of its four-year election cycle.
Why does this make it difficult for the US to counter China?
Because every time a new president comes in, (1) it takes time for the new guy and his administration to get stuck in; (2) He brings a new set of priorities and policies that might even contradict the previous administration; and (3) for the last 12-18 months of his term, the focus is on the next election (and that doesn’t even take into consideration the mid-term elections for Congress).
Rinse and repeat.
Here’s an example in terms of policy: Obama made the Trans Pacific Partnership a key plank of US policy in Asia, seeing it as a means to secure American economic and political influence in the Indo Pacific.
Trump came in and immediately pulled the plug on TPP. The impact? It cost the US in economic opportunities while raising questions among its partners about America’s leadership and commitment to the region.
Chinese policymakers don’t think in terms of 4-year election cycles. Take “Made in China 2025” (MIC2025), the goal of which was to move China away from low-end manufacturing to higher-end technology. This was formulated back in 2015. And as of this year,
…analysis confirms that more than 86 per cent of these goals have been achieved, with some others likely to be completed later this year or next.
So on the one side, you have short-term economic and geopolitical policy that is heavily influenced by internal political considerations (USA) vs an economic and industrial policy that takes a long-term macro view with specific targets and goals (China).
This is one major reason the US is having problems countering China
Japan’s First Revolutionary Human Skin Suit SHOCKED The World
It’s impressive. Imagine what it could eventually turn into.
What is the saddest truth about smart people?
“The most intelligent man in the world has lived a miserable life”
William James Sidis, the most intelligent man in history, son of Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants from Russia, born in New York on April 1st, 1898.
William was a wunderkind, with a prodigious mind and an estimated IQ of 300. He was literally a human computer and a living dictionary.
William J. Sidis never had a childhood or enjoyed being a little boy.
- Imagine for a moment an 18-month old child who can unbelievably read The New York Times.
- At the age of eight, he was fluently speaking French, German, Russian, Turkish, Armenian, Latin, and his native language, English.
- When he was only 9 years old, he was successfully accepted into Harvard University. Let’s get a little deeper and picture this same small child at 9 years of age, inventing a brand new language called “vendergood,” studied by linguists and declared to be complete, correct, and fascinating.
- At the age of twelve, he was giving his first lecture about the fourth dimension to the scientific community and the press.
Because William was so intelligent, great things were expected of him, and a bright future was waiting for him.
His parents, a famous Russian psychologist and one of the first female medical doctors of that time, had a very clear goal in mind: to raise a genius. They educated his mind and completely forgot the essential part: his heart and his feelings.
William showed a solid willingness and patience to learn, but constantly being on display for the public and for the media traumatized him, and he began to rebel against everything in his complex and artificial life.
He had severe emotional problems that he was never able to solve. They discovered his dead body in a small apartment in Boston in 1944. He was 46 years old and he died from a stroke.
“I want to live the perfect life. The only way to live the perfect life is through seclusion. I have always hated crowds.” -William James Sidis-
Modern women have run the men off & now they wonder why they’re single!
Why does China have friends but not allies? What is the reason behind this?
China has discarded the Western notion of “allies”, which is actually “proxy nations”, and “others”. They find it simplistic and deceiving.
Instead they have adopted a matrix of relationships. Not just two dimensional, but actually three dimensional in scope.
In the West you have; Us and “them”. Where “Us” consists of the United States and it’s proxies; nations that it controls via various means to such an extent that they no longer have any real actual sovereignty.
In the Chinese model, you have three axes.
The X Axis.
You can consider this a scale of “friendliness”. The more “friendly” and supportive a nation is, the higher up on the scale it is rated. The more hostile it is, or “apparently” hostile it is, the lower it is on the X – axis.
The Y Axis
This is the actual threat level. High threat levels are given to nations that position their military in close proximity to China, engage in all sorts of hostile belligerent actions; from outright war, to sanctions, to law-fare, and all the rest. Peaceful nations get the highest ratings while bellicose and militarized nations get the lowest ratings.
The Z Axis
This axis measures the risk level. Risks being anything that upsets peaceful coexistence between the two nations. Nations that are unstable, or who are controlled by other entities are assigned low-on-the-scale risk values, while friendly and stable nations get the highest numerical values.
Combined, the values form a cube with an X, Y, and Z axis. And it visually graphs the relative value to China all other nations hold.
Needless to say, the United States has the lowest value of all nations within the cube. And it is a fantasy to think otherwise.
Why I Won’t Move To The USA – American Expat Life
What is an experience you had at a water park you’ll never forget?
My Daughter was maybe 3 and hadn’t learned to swim. The family went on a group outing to a water slide park with lots of different slides and even a kiddie pool with a slide. My wife and I didn’t plan on getting in the water. Our 9 year old son was having a blast with his friends.
The Kiddie pool wasn’t open at the time and my daughter really wanted to slide. My wife went to the life guards at the smallest slide not in the kiddie area and asked if our daughter could go down. They said, no problem. The one at the top would help her start and the one at the bottom would be in the pool to catch her. I didn’t like it but the wife said it would be OK. Off goes my wife with my daughter to the top of the hill. The start point wasn’t visible from the bottom. A couple of bigger kids came down while I waited. Everything seemed fine. Then the pool guard wandered away to talk to someone. Another bigger kid came down. I expected the life guard to turn around and get back to her job but I could see she wasn’t paying any attention.
I see my daughter coming down. the guard is still talking. I yelled to her but she was too far away. My daughter hit the pool, went under water and was looking up at me. I reached down and grabbed her arm, pulling her out.
She wasn’t going to be allowed to go down alone any more. I was elected to take her down for the rest of the day. I tightened the draw string on my shorts, (I didn’t have a swimsuit) and spent the next 2 hours on the water slides with my daughter.
Water slides are not my thing, but I do love my daughter. So I did what I needed to make her happy.
Joe Cocker Rocks! What Happens During This Performance?
Outstanding!
Vintage Adventure Art
Band of Brothers. Tank Battle Europe. Sherman + Cromwell * Tiger + (Jagdpanther || Stug)
As a surgeon, what is the most shocking thing you ever saw after opening somebody up?
I am an obstetrician and gynaecologist, mbbs,dgo, ms, posted under the government of west bengal, india. I performed one caesarean section and delivered a healthy baby of a mother in the government settings. While cleaning the abdomen, I could feel something unusual in the abdomen.I asked the lady for anything abnormal activities in the past. She revealed nothing. Observing and feeling some thing hard within the gut, I smelled something bad which is beyond my academics and long period of service experience. Which prompted me to curiosity and something serious issues and deterred me from closing the abdomen from my conscience point of view. I sent a urgent call book to my surgeon friend to come to Operation theatre immediately and he came very soon and I explained everything to him on an urgent basis. He became involved in the operation and we jointly decided to explore the gut . We opened the bowel and to our utter surprise , it is eight( 8) inches long wooden stick, which we recovered from her bowel. We closed the abdomen and recovery of the lady was uneventful and surprisingly satisfactory. On repeated questioning, she revealed that she had done one abortion by a quack about 10 years back,who performed the abortion with a long stick. I understood the matter immediately that the abortion stick had perforated her uterus and after that it perforated her bowel and went fully inside the bowel , to remain within it for such a long time without making any further complications.We recovered the stick from her bowel.The matter was published in the newspaper in the next day , as the matter in question , is really unbelievable. Since the lady didn’t give me any history, I could have closed the abdomen as such. She might have had many problems later on.On the part of the patient , everything should be disclosed to the doctor for the benefit of the patient, himself/ herself. It’s my sixth sense which saved her from future further complications. Not otherwise, it should have been informed to me by the patient which she didn’t do. Moral of the story , expect the unexpected and to be prepared for the action as and when necessary as per the demand and gravity of the situation. In every sphere of life, we have to act even with the sixth sense.Thanks.
1. Women like women more than men like men.
2. 65% more people believe in reincarnation now compared to 20 years ago.
3. People who laugh more have the same ability to bear more pain.
4. The more choices people are offered, the less likely it is that they will choose anything.
5. Researchers have narrowed down the human personality to five basic traits.
These traits, which are called the Big Five, are neuroticism, agreeableness, extraversion, openness to experience, and conscientiousness.
6. Millionaires who have earned their wealth are moderately happier than those who inherited it.
7. People with unfortunate initials, such as P.I.G or A.S.S have a significantly lower life expectancy.
8. Most people believe other people’s social lives are richer and more active than their own. It’s like the “grass is always greener” phenomenon.
9. Research suggests that your intuition is more likely to be correct if you are in a good mood and if the decision you are supposed to make is complicated.
10. The type of music you listen to affects the way you perceive the world. So be careful while selecting your playlist.
11. Your mind tends to make dull people sound more interesting. It rewrites the monotonous speech of boring people to make them sound more interesting.
12. People develop first impressions of you in a tenth of a second, so make sure your hair and outfit are on point, or you’ll be labeled the “crazy hair guy” forever.
Ancho Chile Rubbed Smoked Beef Brisket
From secret marinades to tricked out grills and smokers, competitive smokers know there is a near ritualistic approach to teasing the perfect flavor out of a premium cut of meat.
Prep: 1 hr | Cook: 11 to 13 hr
Yield: 4 cups Ancho Chile Smoking Spritzer
(Family Features) If the surge in barbecue and smoking competitions across the country is any indication, grilling has become an art form. This summer, gather around the grill to try a technique that’s rising in popularity – smoking – to create a masterpiece meal.
From secret marinades to tricked out grills and smokers, competitive smokers know there is a near ritualistic approach to teasing the perfect flavor out of a premium cut of meat. Smoke like a pro with these tips from Omaha Steaks Executive Chef Karl Marsh.
Start with style
Start by deciding how you’d like to prepare your meat. Smoking infuses flavor throughout the meat, while extended cook times at low temperatures make it extra tender. Smoking also lets you create unique flavors using wet and dry rubs, seasoned wood chips and planks.
Choose your cut
The most popular cuts of meat to smoke are brisket, ribs, pork shoulder or turkey, all of which are typically large. Guarantee a great experience with Omaha Steaks Brisket for smoking, which was created with the competitive barbecue and smoking circuit in mind.
Ready your rub
For best results, brush meat with cooking oil or another liquid ingredient (such as yellow mustard) before adding rub. Spread rub on a clean plate and place the meat on it. Coat both sides with rub by gently pressing the meat on the plate.
Set up the smoker
Preparation varies from one recipe to the next, but one constant is the importance of maintaining a steady temperature. As you prepare your charcoal, be conscious of where you’ll place wood chips or other flavor enhancers.
Slow and steady
Sensational flavor takes time to build, so plan to dedicate hours to your task. Check in at regular intervals to restock wood chips, flip or rotate meat and apply a fresh coat of seasoning or spices.
Find more tips and recipes perfect for a smoking summer at omahasteaks.com.
Ingredients
Brisket
- 1 Whole Omaha Steaks Brisket for smoking
- 2 cups white vinegar
- 2/3 cup yellow mustard
- 3/4 cup Omaha Steaks Ancho Chile Rub
- 4 cups Ancho Chile Smoking Spritzer, divided
- 8 cups apple or cherry wood chips, soaked in water
Ancho Chile Smoking Spritzer
- 2 cups apple juice
- 1 cup cranberry juice
- 1 cup canola oil
- 2 tablespoons red hot pepper sauce
- 1/2 cup Omaha Steaks Ancho Chile Rub
Instructions
Brisket
- Remove brisket from bag and rinse with white vinegar then rinse with water.
- Dry completely using paper towels.
- Slather brisket generously with yellow mustard.
- Rub generously with ancho chile rub and inject with 1 cup Ancho Chile Smoking Spritzer.
- Prepare smoker using 1 chimney of pure lump charcoal fully lit and one chimney of pure lump charcoal unlit. Make sure water pan is full and adjust vents until smoker maintains a temperature between 225 and 250 degrees F.
- Place brisket on smoker fat side up and brush smoking spritzer over top.
- Every hour, check smoker temp, squirt with smoking spritzer and add handful of wood chips.
- After 3 hours, flip brisket fat side down and squirt with spritzer.
- After 6 hours, flip brisket fat side up. Wrap heavy duty foil around the last 3-4 inches of brisket tip to prevent it from drying out. Restock water pan and add lump charcoal as needed. Adjust vents until temperature is between 225 and 250 degrees F.
- Beginning at 8 hours, check internal temperature every hour and apply spritzer and wood chips as needed.
- Between 11 to 13 hours, when internal temperature is between 195 and 200 degrees F, if fork slides easily into brisket, it is done.
- Let brisket rest for 1-2 hours before slicing and serving.
Ancho Chile Smoking Spritzer
- Combine all ingredients and mix well.
Attribution
Omaha Steaks
How concerned should we be about China’s use of AI in the military, including rifle-wielding AI robot dogs?
You don’t have to worry about it at all.
In order to attack China, you have to get to China. Which means ships. China can sink everything within 1,200 miles of the Chinese coast. So you will never see a Chinese robodog with a rifle.
Constantine | John Strikes A Deal With Satan
What are some scary facts about history?
One of the nastiest ways to die in the Middle Ages was toilet related. Because in medieval times, men of power and wealth made use of primitive toilets called a garderobe. If you knew a noble lord would make stool at a specific time a day, it would allow you to target your enemy from below when he’s least expecting it…
Various famous leaders were killed in this gruesome manner, such as English King Edmund Ironside who likely was either stabbed or shot by bow and arrow while relieving himself. It’s just particularly wicked to me… the toilet is the one place where a person should feel safe. It’s a moment of peaceful contemplation. A moment of total relaxation. I couldn’t imagine sitting down to poop and ending up impaled in the butt and dying.
There are a lot of things that scare me about history. But nothing scares me as much as being stabbed or shot in the butt and dying on the toilet. That’s just absolutely gruesome. Medieval times were incredibly unsafe times — even relieving yourself could end up in brutal murder.
Space Camp
Submitted into Contest #8 in response to: Write a story about an adventure in space. … view prompt
Stephanie Lloyd
“What’s space like?” asked one of them.
“It’s great, but how about we save the stories for when I get back?”
There was a second unison of yesses. Kian smiled to himself.
“Alright, well get some sleep. I love you all.”
“Love you too, dad!”
“I love you Kian. Be safe.”
“Always. Talk to you in a week. I’ll send radio signals out to let you know how things are going. And make sure you tell Leda to study for her calculus exam.”
“I know. See you in a week.” Miranda replied warmly.
The radio transmission ended. They passed Mars.
“Are you and Haley going to start a family?” Kian asked. It was, undoubtedly, the most fulfilling part of his life.
“I want to, but Haley says we aren’t ready. She wants to wait for another few years.” There was some doubt in his voice.
“Truthfully, I don’t think she ever wants kids. Just wish she’d have told me before we got married. I just wish she’d tell me at all.”
Silence filled the cabin, except for the periodic systems check beeps. It would seem unbearable to have the constant noise on Earth, but with only two travelling in the massive void of space, there would be an eerie, intolerable silence . without them.
“We’re getting close. Anxious yet?” Cassius asked Kian.
Kian was always anxious being so far from home. He’d not yet recovered from nearly losing Maia on the Moon a month ago, and was questioning ever bringing his girls on a trip again.
He shook his head at the memory. Him and Miranda were so close to letting her wander out the space lock. It took not even ten seconds of her being out of their sight. Earth was far safer. But then again he was a year younger than Maia when him and his grandfather had come to Ceres the first time. And with far worse equipment. No wonder his mother thought her dad was psychotic.
As they approached the Asteroid Belt, Kian watched for the Beacon. It was an orbit leaping spacecraft that kept its position relative to Ceres so travelers would know when to engage the thrusters to divert from the straightaway to Jupiter.
Finally, in the distance, he saw it. He flipped on a series of switches in the cockpit overhead. The empty co-pilot seat now needed to be occupied.
“Cassius!” Kian called back.
“It’s time already?” asked Cassius, who was staring out the window facing back towards Earth.
“It’s time.”
Cassius smiled, took his spot next to Kian, and they started the auto-calculations for the thruster angles. A scramble of quaternions ran down the configuration screen in front of them, the GPS and antenna information calculated their exact position in space.
“I can’t believe your grandfather got you here without auto-nav.”
“Not like there wasn’t the technology. He just liked proving to everyone he was smart.”
Kian didn’t like admitting he was impressed, so he looked to Cassius for a brief moment, a smirk on his face, one eyebrow up, mocking his grandfather.
“You kids, don’t even know how to make the software that lets you camp, and you call it rugged.”
Cassius laughed as the trajectory was locked in, and the thrusters aligned themselves.
“Ready?”
“Ready.”
Kian counted down, each of their hands on a golden key in front of them.
“Three. Two. One.”
They turned their keys at the same moment, and the thrusters engaged. It was the worst part of the trip. Kian always vomited. At least he knew and kept a receptacle on hand. It didn’t stop Cassius from mocking him for it every time.
When they slowed and Ceres was in sight, and the two felt the nausea fade, Cassius turned to Kian, quite serious.
“If this were two hundred years ago and you had to do that with a helmet on, you’d be screwed, mate.”
“Well yeah. Lucky this isn’t 200 years ago, and I don’t need a helmet, or to know how to write the flight software. Although, I suppose we should start suiting up. Don’t want to land without gear.”
“You or me first?”
“I’ll get ready first. Keep an eye on the controls. Last time we lost auto-pilot and I had to get us to the surface without it.”
“Don’t remind me.” Cassius said, clearly disturbed.
Kian unbuckled from the seat and used the armrests to push himself up out of the chair, careful to keep his feet from knocking the steering, or his head from touching the command module.
“You want a snack?”
“I just watched you vomit. I’m good.”
Kian reached the intermediary of the ship, and stowed the headset. Behind his ears was killing him. The collar was made of metal, like a woman’s choker. Or one of those ancient Egyptian mummies. He liked his neck the length it was. He cursed the Global Agency for Astronautics. He wished they’d let them leave Earth with their old skin suits.
He adjusted the clinging fabric as best he could, and realigned the belt around his waist. He opened a drawer in the console and removed his space suit. It was bulky, and weighed 170 pounds on Earth, without the helmet. Although, the pressure regulator did seem to take the weight off once it was operational.
He slid into the suit as if it were one-piece pajamas and interlocked it with the skin suit at the collar and belt. The leg and arm openings were metal rings which interlocked with the gloves and boots. He stepped into the boots and leaned over to twist the rings tight. Then the gloves. It was always the hardest part. He had no trouble with the first one, but his hands lost so much mobility from the gloves it was difficult to click the second one into place.
He opened a cabinet and saw his reflection staring back at him in the lens of his helmet. It was disproportional, like a man in a sumo suit. His blonde hair was already growing back, having been buzzed for the trip.
“You almost done?” shouted Cassius
“Yeah, just the helmet left.”
He took the helmet from the cabinet, careful to only touch the back half that didn’t have the lens, and placed it over his head, securing it with the same twist lock. He took a deep breath and rotated the heavy ring. The whole inside of the suit isolated, he could finally turn on all the regulators, and air valves. The suit inflated slightly, and he pulled out his oxygen tanks from a final drawer, guiding them towards the space lock for use once they landed.
“Your turn.” He said to Cassius, sitting back in the primary pilot seat. Ceres was only thirty minutes away. He stared intently out the window as the thrusters disengaged and they caught the dwarf’s orbit.
“I set the coordinates to get us to Rao, but I think we’re going to end up closer to Kokopelli,” he said.
“Well that’s okay, we haven’t stayed there yet. Remember last time we wished we’d gone a couple more degrees north.” Cassius replied, his voice getting slightly muffled with the helmet.
Kian nodded, turning on his helmet’s local radio.
“Is this too loud?” he asked Cassius.
It came over as barely more than white noise on Cassius’s helmet.
“Too quiet, actually.”
Kian adjusted the settings.
“HOW ABOUT NOW?”
“No! No. Too much. Definitely too much” Cassius, instinctively reached to cover his ears despite them being trapped by the helmet.
Kian made the final adjustments.
“You ready? Let’s land this thing.”
Cassius rejoined Kian.
“You know the drill. Once the command module says we’re orthogonal with the ground, launch the landing sequence.”
They stretched to reach a different duo of keys. The command module beeped with a blue light, and they turned them in unison.
The spacecraft started its descent directly downwards until they were just hovering over the surface. And then they were grounded. They stared out at the crater expanding before them, a couple other spacecraft landed along its rim, and finally let their excitement show.
“Hell yeah. Let’s get out there.”
Kian and Cassius gathered backpacks of items, fixed one another’s oxygen tanks to their backs, and clicked the space lock button. Inside the vestibule, they engaged the air circulation in their suits, making sure they could breathe, and then waited for the chamber to depressurize. The door opened in front of them. In the opposite direction Jupiter hung low in the sky, rising like the Moon.
“Did you remember the camera, Cass?”
“Obviously.”
They walked a few paces from the ship and laid down their gear, pitching their dome. They’d only sleep in it a night out of the three there were here because of oxygen limits, but Kian was more interested in the larger domes that were further along the rim of the crater.
“While this inflates, let’s go check out the other domes. I want to see how they’ve kept their plants alive.”
“I thought you said you didn’t bring any this time? Remember, yours kept dying?”
Kian glanced at Cassius with a mischievous grin on his face.
“There’s no harm in trying, Cass.”
“You took space up for plants? Again?”
“Relax, I only brought a few. I figure one of the permanent botanists can watch them after we leave. And the dome has better UV protection than last time. It should filter out some of the radiation that was burning the leaves off the oaks.”
“I thought you said we were going to explore, not experiment.”
“There’s nothing to explore. Just some rocky land and craters you don’t want to fall into.”
“We could try to find an entrance to the mantle. I really want to be the person to finally prove the existence of the underground ocean.” Cassius sounded as if he were begging.
Kian gawked.
“You’re really comparing getting lost underground to me bringing a few foot-tall trees? I thought we were just going to look at the stars and take pictures. Maybe see if we could catch Earth on the telescope. Not get ourselves killed.”
“We won’t get ourselves killed. Besides, you have to admit that sitting around for three days is going to be painfully boring.”
Kian groaned. He did want to find the underwater cavern. Him and his grandfather spent a week every summer looking for it. But the only entrance to the sublayers of Ceres were in cryovolcanoes. It was way beyond the threshold of their suit ranges. Their blood would freeze.
Cassius knew all of this. Kian had reminded him on a number of occasions and Cassius knew it was a losing battle.
“I suppose we could figure out how to plant your stupid trees,” Cassius said, rolling his eyes.
“I figure,” Kian said as they started leaping towards the larger domes, lazy as can be to preserve oxygen, “if I can get the trees to live, we could get some pretty good terraforming plots going. With enough oxygen and permanence here, maybe we actually could find your underwater ocean.”
“Don’t pretend like you don’t have a nursery at home with another hundred experiments with your plants, Kian. Don’t pretend like you’re doing this for me.”
“I’m a bioengineer, what do you expect? Anyways, I want to find the caverns too. Just, I don’t want to be so rash about it. No one else comes here. We’re not racing to explore. Or, just bring a drone next time.”
They reached the first dome. It was greener than Kian had expected. They approached the space lock and a woman tending to a small patch of grass near the inner door, looked up. She grinned, wide-mouthed, and stood, rubbing the grey dust from her gloves. Sunglasses blocked the radiation, but Cassius was certain they weren’t protecting her vision the way she needed them to, even with the dome shielding.
She looked as if she were tending a regular garden on Earth. He saw her face, and regret immediately filling him with a sick feeling, fell in love.
She opened the space lock and waited as they stepped inside and the vestibule re-pressurized. Before opening the main lock, she asked their identities.
“You two look familiar.”
“Yeah, it’s Kian. I pestered you last year about your growing methods.”
A look of recognition spread across her face.
“Ohhh, I remember you. But not him. You were with someone different, no?”
“Another of my friends.”
Her voice sounded like honey. She welcomed the two of them into the dome. They turned the oxygen feed off and let natural air fill their suits. It was thin certainly, but the dome was beautiful. Somehow, in the middle of the void of space, this little dwarf was green and livable.
“I have all your basic crops growing pretty well now,” said the woman. “Grain, lettuce, even grapes. I’m working on grass to increase the oxygen levels, but it takes a lot of water. Hard to get it to grow without taking trips to the ice caps often. I worry for when they melt in the solar maximum that is upcoming.”
“You do all this by yourself?” asked Cassius, fishing. He felt as though he were betraying Haley, but he knew Haley didn’t love him the way he wished she would.
“No.”
Cassius felt instant disappointment. It was odd he was so attached to her and yet he’d only met her. He thought he wanted to return to Earth but it didn’t stop him from staring at her, at the blue of her eyes, enamored. He reasoned he could get to know her for a few days, convince her to return to Earth with him. It was, of course, entirely unreasonable.
But the dome was beautiful. And did he really want to return to such an unsatisfying life? Kian had a family. What did he have but a crappy job and wife who didn’t love him.
“Do you need any help?” he asked.
“My sister helps. Though it’s a lot.”
“Just you two?”
“Yeah.”
“Care to make it three?”
The woman looked at him like he was crazy.
“Trust me, you don’t want to stay here.”
Kian looked at him like he was even more crazy.
“You know it takes two to pilot the ship right?”
“Well, then I shall return next trip, and when I do, I shall stay.”
The woman smiled.
“We’ll see.”
Three months later, Kian, Cassius, and another friend returned to Ceres. Cassius had resolved to live there permanently. He had divorced Haley. He was, for the first time in years, optimistic.
When they landed near Kokopelli, Kian knew something was wrong. The domes looked different. Cassius, who had dreamt of returning Daria since they left, was the first to run aimlessly to the dome when they landed. Kian and Auden didn’t need to run. They knew what had happened. What had so often happened to those who tried to terraform.
They reached the dome. It wasn’t green or lush. The crops were withered. The air lock was wide open. Daria’s body was huddled next to her sister’s, on the ground and motionless near the entrance of the sub-dome where they slept. The polar caps had melted and vanished. The two girls were dead.
Expat life: American things that don’t make sense
Chile Chicken with Basil and Coconut Cream
This is one of my favorites! Easy and great for dinner parties. Always a hit!
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
- 2 pounds chicken breast fillets
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped small fresh red chiles
- 1 cup shredded fresh basil
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh coriander
- 1 1/2 teaspoons granulated sugar
- 1 cup coconut cream
Instructions
- Remove excess fat from chicken, cut chicken into 1cm (half inch) strips.
- Heat oil in wok, add onions and chiles, stir fry until onion is soft.
- Add chicken, stir fry until chicken is tender. Add basil, sauce, coriander and sugar, stir fry for 1 minute.
- Add coconut cream, stir mixture until heated through.
Notes
Best made before serving. Freeze: Not suitable.
I serve this dish with fluffy Basmati rice and a light lettuce salad.
Jack Meets The Tet (End Scene) | Oblivion
More Heart Pain – Going Home to NJ to see Cardiologist today
As I write it is 6:17 AM EDT on Monday, July 1, 2024 here in Pennsylvania. I have more heart pain. I’m heading home to NJ to head to my Cardiologist. I think I’ve got another blockage.
You may be aware that back on April of the year 2019, I suffered a Myocardial Infarction heart attack. I was in my car on a Saturday morning, driving to the local supermarket in North Bergen, NJ when I suddenly felt this “pressure” in the center of my chest. It didn’t hurt, it felt like someone was kneeling on my chest. I remember thinking, This is odd, and kept driving.
A few blocks later, I started getting this awful pain in my lower jaw. Really hurt! And I started to sweat. Not some gentle little glistening sweat, I mean a full blown FLOP SWEAT. The sweat was POURING out of me.
I thought to myself, pressure in my chest, pain in my jaw, now severe sweating, these are all signs of a heart attack. I denied it and kept driving.
When I got to the supermarket and tried to turn the car into the parking space, it felt as though the muscles in my arms had been hollowed out. No strength at all.
I managed to turn into the space and park.
I opened the car window to get some air and thought I’d just rest a minute and maybe I would feel better. After a minute or so, I went to get out of the car to go shopping, and my legs felt as hollowed out as my arm did. I almost fell flat on my butt.
I got back in the car and said to myself, that’s it, I’m not going shopping, I’m going home. At that moment, I started to feel like I was going to pass out. And I knew, “If I pass out, I’m gonna die right here.” So I called 911.
The police and an ambulance came – fast! They took me to Christ Hospital in Jersey City where I was admitted.
The next day was Easter Sunday, and laying in the hospital bed doing nothing . . . . the whole shit show started all over again. Pressure in the chest, pain the jaw. Sweating.
Docs came, put me on IV nitroglycerin and told me: “There’s something wrong with your heart. We’re trying to prevent it from killing you before we can get in there tomorrow morning and find out what’s going on.
6:00 AM the next morning, into a Cardiac catheterization lab I go. They insert a camera into my wrist artery, then fish it to my heart. There was big imaging machine above my chest taking images as they did what they did. Didn’t hurt at all.
After about ten minutes, the Doc comes back and says, Mr. Turner, you have three, possibly four, severely clogged heart arteries. Normally in a situation like this, we insert stents. But your clogs are not small and round, yours run the entire length of your coronary arteries. You need open heart surgery, and we don’t do that here.
So I told him my regular Doctor is Harvey Gross in Englewood. He has privileges at Englewood Hospital, do they do open heart surgery there? He told me he would call and ask and be right back.
A few minutes later he came back. Yes, they do open heart surgery at Englewood, yes, they take your insurance and yes, they have a bed available, we’ve called an ambulance to transport you up there right now.
So up I go.
We get to Englewood, they do all the tests all over again; they weren’t taking anyone’s word for it.
In anticipation of giving me stents, Christ Hospital gave me a load dose of a medicine called Plavix. It stops the blood from clotting. But they couldn’t put the stents and I had to go to Englewood.
Well, Plavix is great for stents, but terrible for open heart surgery. They need me to clot when they cut my chest open.
It took five days for the Plavix to clear out enough where I could undergo surgery. They took me in Friday morning. Long story short, I got quadruple bypasses. FOUR arteries were 90-95% clogged.
It took about 6 months for the sternum to heal after they cut it open, but I got along fine.
Fast-Forward 17 months after the surgery . . . . down I go again!
Another myocardial infarction heart attack. Turned out that two of the four bypasses, CLOGGED WITH BLOOD CLOTS. I was right back into a life threatening situation. And __this__ heart attack . . . . . . was WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY worse than the first.
The ended up putting a stent in. I went into heart failure in the cardiac catheterization lab, but came out of that. That was October 2020.
In January 2023, I started getting the twinges of pain that I recalled preceded my first heart attack, so up to the Doc I went. He said, given my history, it is best they go in and look again. I agreed. They found more clogs. Inserted another stent in my left, anterior, descending artery.
Which brings me to this past Saturday afternoon, around 12:45 PM. I’m sitting at my desk up here in Pennsylvania and wham, the same pain that happened at the first heart attack, started again. Then the jaw pain. I thought “Oh shit, it’s happening again.” And then . . . . it all just stopped. No pain. No pressure. No sweating.
Uh oh. I think this is a sign I’ve got more trouble brewing.
I wanted to drive home to NJ but my truck has 22 solar panels in the bed and I want them up here. But unloading them (1400 lbs) would be physical labor that may not have been wise given my situation. So I planned to get some neighbors to help unload the solar panels on Sunday. That didn’t work out. So I’m hiring a couple guys today.
I’ve got very mild pressure in the center of my chest. No pain, no sweating, so if there’s something going on inside, it is not a full blown M.I. but that nagging, mild pressure in my chest tells me I’m close to going full blockage.
The plan is to unload the solar panels, lock up the house and head out to NJ to my cardiologist. I’m pretty certain he’s going to want to go back in with a cardiac catheter again. In fact, I’m going to request exactly that. I KNOW something is wrong and it has to be addressed – today. This would mean I won’t be on the air tonight.
If, by chance I waited too long, or this thing hits while I’m doing my stuff this morning, or while I’m driving home – and I die – my son Michael will let you know.
I just want to let all of you know how much I appreciated you being part of my radio show. It has been a pleasure and an honor for me – even if sometimes I brought down lightning strikes with some of the opinions I aired.
You folks have been very kind to me and while I completely intend to keep broadcasting, God may have other plans. I’ll keep you posted.
Just a heads-up.
Prometheus | Destroy the Ship
In the battlefield, how safe are snipers? Do snipers have the highest chance of survival since they are so far away?
Rule #1 of combat. If the enemy is in range, so are you.
A sniper, if they are set up really well and don’t shoot too often, can go a long time without being found. But once they are found, then they die.
There was a situation once where a particularly well concealed sniper was shooting at American troops in Iraq. He may not have always killed his intended victim, but it was, to say the least, disconcerting for the troops in his area.
In an effort to rid themselves of this pest, the Army sent out various sniper teams to try and locate this guy. They were out for a LONG time and shot after shot was made by the sniper, but he was still impossible to find.
Then one counter-sniper saw a brick in a wall move. A single brick moved, then a shot was heard, then the brick was put back in place.
They had found him.
A sniper was sent to a position that would allow them to shoot into the hole the sniper was making when he moved that brick. A few minutes later, the brick moved, the counter-sniper shot, and the enemy sniper was dead.
His big mistake was thinking that nobody would ever see that one brick moving. So he stayed in one place and died because he was too lazy to find a new hide.
Did China just pass quasi-laws which can theoretically sentence anyone (especially the Taiwanese people) who publish or support the opinions of Taiwanese independence to death penalty?
Study the laws carefully with proper Chinese translation
(Rough Translation)
There are four levels of Punishment :-
Level 1 – Any person who publishes material through a blog or electronic post advocating for Taiwanese Secession from the Mainland shall be
If younger than 18 years of age, be placed under RESTRICTIVE SURVEILLANCE until such time as the Investigator sees fit or until the person commits activities that are deemed secessionist under the security act
If older than 18 years of age or 18 years of age, shall be placed under ACTIVE SECURITY INVESTIGATION and subject to security report may be WARNED or placed under DIGITAL BLACKLIST or maybe charged with Secessionist activity under the security act
- So here if you merely post you want Taiwanese Independence – you will either be monitored by the authorities and won’t get a Civil Service Job or a Foreign Scholarship or a Passport for maybe a decade or two
- Or if you are an Adult – you get a warning or get placed on a Digital Blacklist meaning No access to Weibo or other Social Media Apps
- Unless it is revealed you are funded by NGOs or other groups in which case you get charged with Secession and could face severe sentences
No Jail in either case
Level 2 – Any Person who belongs to or supports an Organization that advocates Taiwanese Secession under Lists I-IX or who has received a sum of not less than 60,000 RMB in a single year or 200,000 RMB over a longer period from such an organization without discernible services provided shall
Be sentenced to an Imprisonment of not less than 5 years which can extend upto 15 years
However any Person who has joined or expressed such support only over a period of less than 3 months shall receive a PUBLIC WARNING and if in compliance shall not be proceeded with beyond RESTRICTIVE SURVEILLANCE
- This means if a Mainlander joins a Pro Taiwanese Organization like a foolish student,he shall get a WARNING and if he complies and backs out – he is not touched beyond the usual Restrictive Surveillance. He of course will never work for Civil Service or Get a Passport for life
Level 3 – Any Person who forms an organization within the Mainland that calls Support for Taiwanese Secession and either collects funds for the same or advocates policy and speech that is in favor of Taiwanese Secession shall
- Be Sentenced to Death with no avenue of commutation to Life Imprisonment
- All members of the HUKOU records of the Person shall automatically be under ACTIVE SECURITY INVESTIGATION and shall be placed under RESTRICTIVE SURVEILLANCE and Digital Blacklist and any members of the Party shall be expelled from Party Membership subject to Committee Enquiry under VII Rules
- Any members of the HUKOU records of such a person shall if overseas be recalled immediately and after a recall notice period of 60 days shall be categorized under Level III Security Act
- This is the changed law. The new law where if anyone forms an organization that calls for Taiwanese Secession and collects funds or makes speeches in favor of Taiwan. THEY WILL BE EXECUTED WITHOUT MERCY OR COMMUTATION TO LIFE
- Their family members will be investigated and if members of the CPC may be expelled or if overseas shall be recalled and if they don’t come within 60 days- they will be deemed security threats and can even be KILLED ON FOREIGN SOIL
This is the New change in the law. Earlier it was 25 Years to Life with NO DEATH PENALTY
Level 4 – Any Person who is accomplice to or instigator of an Act of Physical Violence or Terrorism on the Mainland or Mainland Sovereign Territory in any Country that causes at least 500,000 RMB of Damage or a loss of one or more lives shall be
- Sentenced to Death with Commutation possible only for persons who can prove lack of knowledge of the activities and who had no further role
- All members of the HUKOU records of the Person shall automatically be subjected to the NATIONAL RELOCATION ACT and SECURITY DETENTION ACT
- Any members of the HUKOU records of such a person shall if overseas be recalled immediately and after a recall notice period of 7 days shall be categorized under Level III Security Act
- Any Separatist who causes Violence in China or Embassies that cause 500K of physical damage or loss of even one person shall be executed without mercy
- This Law is so tough that IF YOU ARE A LANDLORD WHO RENTED A HOUSE TO SUCH PEOPLE – YOU WILL GET LIFE IMPRISONMENT WITHOUT MERCY
- Families of such persons shall be deported to labor camps and kept there for life including Children
Both Parents or All Guardians will face the same sentence if their Kids younger than 18 are charged and convicted under this act
So if a 17 year old kid blows up a Molotov cocktail killing someone, the Parents will be executed under the New Law unless they inform on their kid leading to a conviction of the Kid in which case they get fully exonerated by the State
So the only new change is that now anyone who forms an organization to support Taiwanese Independence shall be executed without mercy and their families shall be prevented from doing a lot of things
- Their Kids can never go abroad
- Their families can never live within 300 Kms of any place with Security facilities
- Their families can never get a Passport
- Their families can never work for the Government of China
- Their families can never work for a Strategic Industry in any capacity
- Their families can never join the PLA or PLAAF or PLAN
Families include – Parents, Children, Wife, Consort, Divorced Wife is Divorce is less than 5 years old, Siblings, Wives of Siblings, Children of Siblings, Grandchildren, Great Grandchildren
So if one guy does it – upto 40–50 people can suffer for no fault of their own
Now here is something the West didn’t tell you
The Law also excludes people:-
Exclusion:-
The Security Law shall NOT regard the following persons as culpable under it and shall deem them law abiding. This includes :-
- Any person who reports possible secessionist activities of any family member under the Hukou system
- Any Person who has relatives in Taiwan and declares the same
- Merely because a person has visited Chinese Taipei does not put a person under the purview of the Act unless such person visited Taipei in contravention of existing emigration procedures
- No person who merely posts secessionist content on behalf of another person and can establish the same, be charged under this act
- Merely indicating support for DPP in Taiwan or for Leaders of the DPP is insufficient to be charged under this Act
So you can call William Lai a Hero and nothing will happen to you
So only three areas are DRACONIAN
First is that family members also suffer for no fault of their own , something that was removed off statuette since the death of Mao Tse Tung and reintroduced in 2009 for Xinjiang only
Second – Kids can inform on their parents and Parents must inform on their Kids to avoid being charged. So a son who sees his father work for Taiwan must report him and watch him be executed to survive and so must a father
Three – Execution is the only course now. No commutation to life. You get convicted, you die
This wasn’t the case previously
So while the new laws are draconian to a good extent – they allow a lot of leeway unlike India
In India someone saying Pakistan Zindabad can be charged with UAPA
In China now clearly – just because you hail DPP or William Lai won’t make you culpable at all. You will not even be touched.
Biden debate debacle
Yeah. It was awful.
Shorpy
As a doctor, what is it like when you have to see a doctor?
I hate it.
I hate having to make an appointment. I hate filling out those stupid review of systems files that the doctor never seems to have bothered looking at by the time I get to talk to them. I hate that the doctor is always late, but that the staff will give me shit about it if I’m late. I hate having to ask someone else to write me a prescription for something I already know I need. And, most of all, I hate being lectured about what I need to do for my health.
Go away! Shut up. I already know this stuff. LEAVE ME ALONE! I’m a freakin’ doctor, too, dammit.
That’s a polite rendition of my inner monologue when a doctor tells me what I need to do. So, most of the time, I avoid going to the doctor’s office. If I know I want something, I write myself a prescription—yes, you can do that, as long as it’s not a controlled substance. If it doesn’t take care of my problem, then and only then will I seek medical care.
I’m young enough that I can get away with it, because I don’t yet have serious medical issues. For now, there are very specific circumstances under which I will go see a doctor:
- I need to see a specialist for a problem well above my pay grade.
- I know that some test needs to be ordered. I can’t order a hip X-ray or lab test for myself, for instance.
Even then, if I can get away with it, I’ll go to the Urgent Care center, because I hate making appointments.
“If you treat yourself as a doctor, you’ll have an idiot for a patient.”
I’ve heard variations of these over the years. Fine, I’m an idiot, then. I don’t care. I’ll be damned if I’ll go see a doctor unless I absolutely have to.
Don’t try this at home, kids.
I Dumped My Girlfriend And Ended Her Best Friend’s “Perfect” Open Marriage, Now EVERYONE Blames Me
Has a doctor ever misdiagnosed you to the point where it was almost bizarre?
Yes. When having sepsis, the initial diagnosis by the ER doctor who didn’t even bother to look at me was “ your depression acting up”. Never mind my high fever, renal colic pain and failure, my inability to breathe, vomiting and repeated fainting, it must be all in my head! Fortunately my blood results changed his mind.
Blood tests were ordered after I did some yelling on the topic of me going to another hospital( which was quite near) and then coming back to kick his a**.
Very recently my elderly mom has suffered from lower back pain for 2 months straight. No meds helped, she frequently vomited, could hardly walk and couldn’t sleep because of the pain. She was ordered basically every test known, going through gastroenterology ( yeah, she has post inflammatory narrowed esophagus), urology/nephrology, orthopedia. Urine tested, blood tested. She was told she was fine, nothing was wrong. Until a CAT scan was performed. Showed 3 fractured vertebraes caused by foreign mass.
After giving birth , I cried through the night because of a terrible pain. Was told by the nurse on duty that “ G, you have birth vaginally, we only give pain meds to women recovering from C-section, it can’t hurt you”. Had multitude of stitches( forgot to count after an hour of them sewing me back together) due to 4th degree tear and an F broken coccyx! I couldn’t sit, walk or lay down without that pain for 4 months. But I guess it was just me being too sensitive.
Since we’re both women, we have plenty of those experience. Let’s group them under medical misogyny aka “you’re a woman, you’re overreacting”.
Ps. Let me not start on how many times I was asked if I was sure it wasn’t just a period pain. I think it was actually the first 2 years of me having recurrent kidney stones causing renal colics when my then ahole GP refused to order an ultrasound “ because I was too young to have kidney stones”.
PS 2. The most ridiculous situation actually happened when my molars rot and caused a massive infection during the last trimester of my pregnancy. At first, I went to a doctor with what seemed as a heart attack. He then moved on to whether I was having a stroke, trigeminal nerve inflammation to finally getting to “ F teeth why didn’t I think of that?”. To give him some credit, my pulse was sky high and I felt sharp pain in my jaw and neck. Teeth wouldn’t be the first guess.
This cat was called ‘mean.’ Then he met my husband.
What was it that your partner told you that gave you chills?
My second husband was in the hospital, dying from cancer. The day before he died, I took him down stairs to smoke a cigarette. As we were sitting outside, he looked around and said, “Honey, don’t look, they’re watching me.” When I asked him what he was talking about, he said “the shadow people. They’re over there, in the woods.” I turned to look and he said “no, don’t look, they’ll get you too. I think they’re here for me” That comment sent shivers down my spine. I said “no, sweetheart, there’s no one here for you” I thought he was hallucinating because of the pain meds. He said “shut up, I have to tell you some things.” He proceeded to tell me how my life would go after he was gone. He told me that I would get remarried and that he would tell me WHOM I was going to marry. He told me I would have more children.
Now, at this point in my life I had been told that I couldn’t have any more children. I told him he was crazy and that I thought we needed to get him back up to his room.
I got him back up to his room got him in his bed and he went back to sleep. He passed away in his sleep 6 hours later.
Oh, and the things he said would happen….
They happened!
Have you ever witnessed a life ruined from a small mistake?
I worked with a man whose life fell apart quite dramatically over a few weeks.
He was a nice guy and I really liked him. His name was Ivor and I feel terrible about what happened to him.
He and his wife were drinking together one evening, and they started arguing. So he went to sleep in his car. A few hours later, the police knocked on his window and woke him up. Although he had not been driving, the keys were in the ignition and he had been sleeping in the driver’s seat. They breathalised him and he was still very drunk.
As they now had him for drunk driving, they had the right to search his car. In the car they found a cosh that he kept for protection. I doubt he would ever use it. But, unfortunately, they are illegal and he was now in trouble for carrying an offensive weapon.
His wife was angry at him so wouldn’t let him come home, so he had to sleep on a friend’s sofa. By the way, Ivor was not a young man, he was in his early sixties. Due to his stress, he carried on drinking. He started missing a lot of work. Which was bad. What was worse is that one day, he DID turn up to work, but very drunk. He worked for about thirty minutes, until his managers called him in the office, and after a heated argument, he was fired.
So we never saw Ivor again. This whole thing played out over about three weeks. So in three weeks, Ivor lost his wife, driver’s license, job, and got a criminal record. In his sixties.
Ivor was a good guy and he used to have foreign students stay at his house. Just before he got fired he had Japanese students, and would bring Japanese food in for us to try. I often wonder what the Japanese people staying at his house made of his meltdown.
Brutal Signs of a Collapsing Empire | Richard D. Wolff
Barbecued Brisket
Ingredients
Brisket
- 1 flat brisket
Dry Rub
- 2 tablespoons salt
- 2 tablespoons chili powder
- 2 tablespoons meat tenderizer
- 1 tablespoon pepper
- 1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
Mop Sauce
- 1 (10 1/2 ounce) can beef consommé
- 1 can water
- 1/3 cup vinegar
- 3/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 teaspoons meat tenderizer
- 1 1/2 teaspoons dry mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 1 bay leaf
Barbecue Sauce
- 1 1/2 cups Worcestershire sauce
- 1/4 cup vinegar
- 1/4 cup steak sauce
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup ketchup
Instructions
Brisket
- Trim any excess fat from 1 flat brisket. Rub both sides of brisket thoroughly with Dry Rub. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
- The next day prepare a grill so that it will smoke slowly for about 6 hours or about 1 hour per pound. Start brisket on grill with the fattest side up. Cover grill. Mop with Mop Sauce frequently during grilling. Turn brisket about every hour.
- Serve with warm Barbecue Sauce.
Dry Rub
- Mix all ingredients in small bowl.
Mop Sauce
- Bring beef consommé and water to boil in medium-size saucepan. Turn down heat. Add remaining ingredients. Stir until thoroughly mixed. Remove from heat.
Barbecue Sauce
- Place all ingredients in small saucepan. Bring to boil. Remove from heat.
What would happen if I threw a rock at a wild polar bear?
Throwin rocks at a wild Polar Bear ?
Short answer – No. Long answer – HELL NO.
Even if you had a 9mm pistol (let’s say a glock)
And you were facing a polar bear and you were lucky enough to let off some rounds. Guess what ? Be prepared to make peace with whatever deity you follow and learn from the lesson and do better in the next life.
The Bear will look at you and think……. “that looks tasty …nom nom”
Most animals will back off at the sound of gunshot.
Not Polar Bears
Even if you hit them they’ll carry on charging and will get to you.
The only way to stop it was if you were very, very, very lucky and got the bullet through their eye into their brain, maybe.
But areas of instant kill with a bear charging towards you on all fours is about size of teaplate. Can you hit that repeatedly under stress ? You really do not have much time for mistakes.
Their skull is harder and thicker than a motorcycle helmet. They kill seals just by slapping them. Trying to alpha posture by standing tall and making yourself look bigger will accomplish nothing.
“I’d hide behind a rock!”
You die behind that rock.
“I’d jump into a river!”
You die wet and cold.
“I’d stand my ground and yell at the bear to frighten it”
You die faster.
There are around three thousand polar bears on the Svalbard islands; that’s more polar bears than there are humans and they are protected by Svalbard law. So they have not built up a fear of humans.
Not every animal wants to hug a human.
Until humans with BIG rifles (22 calibre ……….actually more like .444 marlin) came along, nothing hunted polar bears. Nothing. There is no scaring it off. Just look at them
Polar bears will eat each other if they’re desperate enough. So what do you think they’ll do to you ?
They’re also dangerous because they’re skilled apex predators (meaning they have no natural predators of their own) Which means, cute as they may be, the polar bear is quite functionally the great white shark of the north.
- They don’t hibernate.
- They never get cold.
- Food is scarce.
- They’re always (I repeat) ALWAYS hungry.
The bottom line is if you’re a human being on open ice in the Artic Tundra with no serious firearm or vehicle and you run into this pic below ?
You have two chances of surviving
- Slim
- None
And slim just left town
You know the striking thing about a Polar Bear when u see them in the flesh, my friend ?
They’ve got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll’s eyes.
When they come at ya, it doesn’t seem to be livin…….until they bite ya and at that point you’re not on earth anymore and the Polar bear is the last thing you’ll ever see.
And bears are omnivores (meat and plant eaters) which means unlike carnivores like tigers and lions who have the polite decency to kill you as quick as possible first then eat you.
Polar bears will just hold you down, pin you to the ground like you’re a seal or salmon and eat you while you’re alive and screaming.
They have a bite force of 1,000 psi (Pounds Per Square Inch) that’s a force strong enough to crack a bowling ball and they’ll use that to disable you, to rip off your arm or leg for a snack, you can’t even imagine the kinda force they can generate.
To a Polar Bear an average-sized human is just right for a comfortable dinner with a glass of port and a good cigar afterwards.
You dunno what you’re dealing with.
And they’re trying to get access to your organs to chew them apart, then if there’s anything left of you, put you in stash, n come back a bit later n eat some more of you.
Just a brutal way to go.
They can run at speeds of 25 mph, If that doesn’t impress you, the fastest man alive who was Usain Bolt his maximum top speed was 27 mph and they can smell you for miles (even if your under snow) and swim for 100’s of miles
And they’re smart to. Polar bear on thin ice ? No problem they know they have to spread their weight around so it’s not concentrated in one spot so as to not crack the ice.
Humans in movies : Aggressively steps on ice
There are only three things up in the Arctic: Ice, water, and potential calories. Guess which category people are in ?