I love “Moon Pies”.
You know, I never had them EVER… until I was in Jail.
We were in Jail.
We shared a cell.
My cellmate and I got some change and bought some snacks at the commissary …
And we bought “snickers” …
…and “Moon Pies”.
And we sat in the cell during lock-down and ate snickers and moon pies.
Memories. Good times..
Moon pies.
Today…
Americans react to seeing the REAL China for the first time.
In english. Title is in Chinese: 跨国温情与寒冬悲剧：国外阿姨被中国网友感动落泪，美一家三口冻死街头卖血仍需交税
xiao hong shu
God bless you all!
Some of the content on this video is just AMAZING! Really. Please take the time to watch all of this video. The translation read-out about a Chinese thoughts on what is going on in the USA today is spellbinding.
Why did Columbia cave in to Trump after he threatened them with sanctions?
They did not
Colombia made two demands :-
- They wanted the deportees to be transported by Civilian Aircraft and not by Military Aircraft
- They wanted the Deportees data to be handed over to the Colombians , four hours before the flight took off from USA to confirm they were indeed Colombians
The US immediately complied with both these demands
Thus ensuring this was a NORMAL DEPORTATION rather than a Standoff against Trump
Lumpiang Sariwa
I was in high school when I first tasted ‘lumpiang sariwa‘ or fresh lumpia. It was strange and unusual for me because I was more familiar with fried spring rolls made with meat (egg roll) or with vegetables and bean sprouts called lumpiang togue. I liked it immediately and later found out that it is widely known but not easily available. Probably, it is because of the main ingredient ‘ubod’ or the palm heart found at the tip of a coconut trunk. This lumpiang sariwa recipe consist mainly of ubod and few additional vegetables.
What is Lumpiang Sariwa?
It took its characteristics from ‘lumpiang ubod’ which originates from Silay City in the province of Negros Occidental. Purportedly it emerged as one of the appetizers carried on woven trays (bilao) by servers in mahjong gambling dens. The ubod was taken from freshly felled coconut trees that are also used widely in Ilonggo cuisine. It became popular and was adopted in other parts of the Philippines and later on became known as lumpiang sariwa.
Lumpiang sariwa is a break from all the carb-laden glutinous food and deep fried meat that Filipinos are very fond of. Unlike the common spring rolls, can be made of meat or vegetables, which are deep fried, lumpiang sariwa is made with sauteed fillings wrapped in a thin egg crepe and then topped with a delectable sauce. It is called ‘sariwa’ or fresh because you will not fry the whole spring rolls. Its peanut sauce and lumpia wrappers are the elements which will make it special.
Lumpia wrappers can be homemade or commercial. It is thicker compared to wrappers use in fried version. It is made by mixing egg, flour, and water into a thin batter. It is poured into a pan for more or less a minute and then taken out to dry.
Try lumpiang sariwa recipe for a fresh and healthy snack (or lunch!). This recipe contains no meat or shrimp, but feel free to add those if you like and other vegetables like, cilantro and bean sprouts.
Ingredients
For the wrapper
- 1 cup cornstarch
- 1 ½ cups water
- 3 eggs, beaten
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon oil
- Nonstick cooking spray
For the Filling
- 1 carrot (julienne)
- 1 stock of celery (julienne)
- 2 cloves of garlic (minced)
- 1 spring onion (julienne)
- 2 pounds (about 4 cups) ubod, julienne
- 1 tablespoon cooking oil
- 1 tbs soy sauce
- salt and pepper to taste
- green leaf lettuce leaves, ends trimmed and leaves separated
For the Sauce
- 2–3/4 cups water
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- ¾ cup sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unsalted peanuts, ground
- 1 head garlic (about 3 tablespoons), peeled and minced
- 2 tablespoons peanut butter
- 3 tablespoons corn starch
Instructions
For the Wrappers
- Mix cornstarch and water in a large bowl. Whisk together until smooth. Add eggs and salt. Beat to combine until smooth.
- Set a 9-inch nonstick pan over low heat. Lightly spray surface of pan with nonstick cooking spray.
- Add ¼ cup batter. Tilt the pan with a circular motion so that the batter coats the surface evenly. Cook for about 30 to 40 seconds.
- When the edges of the batter begin to pull from the sides and small bubbles begin to form in the middle of crepe, gently flip and cook the other side of the wrap until top is firm and dry.
- Gently slide it onto a plate when done. Repeat with remaining batter, spray pan with nonstick cooking spray in between to keep the wrap from sticking.
For the Filling
- In a pan over a medium heat, saute onions and garlic.
- Add in carrots and celery. Add ubod and soy sauce.
- Lower heat, cover and cook for about 10 to 15 minutes or until ubod and carrots are tender. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Remove from pan and drain off oil and juices.
- Lay down a fresh crepe on a plate.
- Add a lettuce on the middle and spoon in about ¼ cup of the filling across the middle of wrapper.
- Fold the sides to make a roll. Set aside.
For the Sauce
- In a sauce pan over medium heat, put 2-1/2 cups of the water, soy sauce, brown sugar and salt. Mix.
- Stir regularly as the mixture is brought to a boil.
- Add garlic and peanuts when the sugar is dissolves and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes.
- In a separate bowl, combine corn starch and the remaining ¼ cup water. Stir until mixture is smooth.
- Whisk vigorously then put corn starch mixture into the pan with soy sauce mixture.
- Stir regularly until the mixture thickens.
- Add peanut butter and stir until it dissolves into the sauce.
- Pour sauce over lumpiang sariwa.
- Serve and enjoy.
Title: Sir Whiskerton and the Case of Count Catula: A Purr-fectly Peculiar Night
Ah, dear reader, welcome to a tale unlike any other, one filled with mystery, intrigue, and… fang-tastic twists. The farm has seen its fair share of oddities over the years—fainting chickens, rebellious chipmunks, and even a goat who thought he was a tree climber. But tonight, the farm is visited by a creature so enigmatic, so mysterious, and so utterly ridiculous that even I, Sir Whiskerton, was momentarily thrown off my game. This is the story of Count Catula, a self-proclaimed vampire cat who prowled the farm one moonlit night, stirring up trouble, laughter, and just a little bit of terror.
So grab your garlic (just in case) and prepare for a night of claws-trophobic hilarity.
The Mysterious Visitor
It was a dark and stormy night—or at least, it would have been if the weather hadn’t been so annoyingly pleasant. The moon hung high in the sky, casting a silvery glow over the farm as I prowled through the barnyard on my nightly patrol. Everything seemed calm… until it wasn’t.
“Whiskerton!” Rufus the dog barked, skidding to a stop in front of me. “There’s… there’s something in the barn!”
I raised an eyebrow. “Something? Care to be more specific?”
“It’s… a cat,” Rufus said, his voice dropping to a whisper. “But not like you. This one’s… weird.”
“Weird?” I echoed, my curiosity piqued. “How so?”
“He’s wearing a cape,” Rufus said, his ears flattening. “And he keeps saying something about… blood.”
“Blood?” I said, narrowing my eyes. “Alright, show me.”
The First Encounter
Rufus led me to the barn, where the chickens were huddled together, trembling like leaves in a stiff breeze.
“Oh, Sir Whiskerton!” Doris the hen clucked, flapping her wings. “It’s terrible! There’s a… a monster in the barn!”
“Monster! But also so creepy!” Harriet added.
“Creepy! Oh, I can’t bear it!” Lillian screeched, fainting into a pile of hay.
I rolled my eyes and padded into the barn, where I found the so-called “monster” perched dramatically on a bale of hay. He was a sleek black cat with piercing green eyes, a ridiculously oversized cape, and a theatrical air that could rival my brother, Sir Cattenton.
“Greetings, mortal,” the cat said in a deep, velvety voice, his cape billowing slightly (despite the lack of wind). “I am Count Catula, lord of the night, drinker of milk, and bringer of… dramatic pauses.”
I tilted my head. “I’m sorry, you’re who?”
“Count Catula,” he repeated, whiskers twitching. “And who, pray tell, are you?”
“Sir Whiskerton,” I said, flicking my tail. “Farm detective and keeper of the peace. What are you doing on my farm?”
“Your farm?” Catula said, raising an eyebrow. “Oh, I’m afraid you’re mistaken, my dear Whiskerton. This farm is no longer yours. It is mine now. The night belongs to me!”
The Farm Reacts
Word of Count Catula’s arrival spread quickly, and soon the entire farm was in an uproar.
“He’s a vampire!” Doris clucked, pacing nervously.
“A vampire! But also so terrifying!” Harriet added.
“Terrifying! Oh, I can’t bear it!” Lillian screeched, fainting yet again.
Even Rufus seemed uneasy. “What if he tries to, you know… bite us?”
“Bite you?” I said, rolling my eyes. “He’s a cat, Rufus. He doesn’t even have fangs.”
“Ah, but I do,” Catula interjected, flashing his teeth. “They’re… temporarily misplaced. But rest assured, I am a real vampire.”
The animals gasped.
“Real! But also so spooky!” Harriet clucked.
“Spooky! Oh, I can’t—” Lillian began, but I cut her off with a paw wave.
“Enough!” I said. “Catula, if you’re going to stay on this farm, you’ll need to follow the rules. No scaring the chickens, no stealing milk, and definitely no claiming ownership of the night.”
Catula smirked, his green eyes glinting. “We shall see, Whiskerton. We shall see.”
Strange Happenings
Over the next few days, the farm was abuzz with gossip about Count Catula. The chickens refused to leave their coop, the cows kept glancing nervously over their shoulders, and even the geese were unusually quiet (a miracle in itself). Meanwhile, Catula continued to strut around the farm, draping his cape over every available surface and delivering ominous monologues to anyone who would listen.
“Do you know the true power of the night?” he asked Doris one evening.
“I’d rather not!” Doris squawked, fleeing in terror.
But it wasn’t just Catula’s theatrics that had the farm on edge. Strange things began to happen. The milk bucket mysteriously emptied itself overnight. A pile of hay was shredded into confetti. And one morning, the farmer found a suspicious pawprint on his prized pumpkin.
“Catula,” I said, cornering him near the barn. “Care to explain why the milk bucket was empty this morning?”
“Ah, yes,” Catula said, smirking. “I needed it to quench my… thirst.”
“For milk?” I said, raising an eyebrow.
“Of course,” Catula said, licking his lips. “What else would a vampire cat drink?”
The Catnip Twist
Just when I thought things couldn’t get any stranger, Catnip showed up.
“Well, well, if it isn’t Count Catula,” Catnip said, grinning like the Cheshire Cat. “I must say, I’m impressed. You’ve got the whole farm wrapped around your paw.”
“Ah, a fellow feline,” Catula said, inclining his head. “And who might you be?”
“Catnip,” he said, flicking his tail. “The mastermind of this farm. And I think you and I could make quite the team.”
I growled softly. “Not on my watch.”
“Oh, come now, Whiskerton,” Catnip said, smirking. “Think about it. With Catula’s theatrics and my cunning, we could run this farm in style. No more rules, no more farmer—just us, living the good life.”
“And what about the rest of the animals?” I said, narrowing my eyes. “Do they get a say in this?”
“Who cares what they think?” Catnip said, waving a paw dismissively.
Catula hesitated, his dramatic persona faltering. “Well, I do enjoy an audience…”
The Farm Stands United
Realizing I needed to act fast, I gathered the animals for a meeting.
“Listen,” I said, addressing the crowd. “Catula may be theatrical, and Catnip may be cunning, but this farm runs on teamwork and trust. Are we really going to let two scheming cats take that away from us?”
The animals murmured among themselves, their resolve strengthening.
“No way!” Rufus barked.
“We’re a team!” Doris clucked.
“A team! Oh, I can’t bear it!” Lillian screeched, fainting one last time.
Together, we confronted Catula and Catnip in the barn.
“Catula,” I said, stepping forward, “it’s time for you to make a choice. Are you with us, or are you with Catnip?”
Catula looked between us, his green eyes thoughtful. Finally, he sighed. “Very well. I shall stay… but only if I am allowed to keep my cape.”
“Deal,” I said, smirking.
A Happy Ending
With Catnip sent packing (again) and Catula officially part of the farm, peace was restored. The chickens stopped hiding, the milk bucket stayed full, and even the geese returned to their usual honking.
The moral of the story, dear reader, is this: even the most dramatic personalities can find their place in a community, as long as they’re willing to play by the rules. And as for Count Catula? Well, he’s now the farm’s official “Lord of Nighttime Naps,” a title he wears with pride.
Until next time, my friends.
The End.
What is poor white trash? Who are the poor white trash of America?
For 42 years, I’ve been told I am. At times I’ve resisted that description, at other times embraced it. Nowadays I try to be mostly indifferent to it.
Let me try to explain both points at the same time.
I was born in rural Kentucky to a family of tradesmen. My dad was a pipefitter and a stone mason. Odd combination, I know. Most of the men on my mother’s side were carpenters, and my paternal grandfather was a mechanic for most of his working life. In addition to construction, nearly everyone around there either had a small plot of tobacco or worked someone else’s during the season. Back then, this included the kids.
I spent most of my formative years living in mobile homes. You know, trailer parks. Depending on who was around, we were white trash, construction trash, or trailer trash. The names may have changed, but the stigma was the same. We were less than “normal” people.
Now, these people using these names didn’t know me. Often they only knew of me or my family. But that’s irrelevant, since a person’s job and their housing situation defines them in this country.
Contrary to the stereotypes, my parents were married for 45 years. They passed withing a few weeks of each other. It wasn’t always a perfect marriage, but they loved each other and they loved their kids. They believed strongly in honesty and hard work. Every effort was made to ensure me and my brother had those same values.
I don’t want to make it sound like all people who do physical labor are saints. Sometimes things were rough. Sometimes money was tight. Sometimes things were loud. Other times things were comfortable, plentiful, quiet. One constant was we could rely on and trust each other.
That’s how I came up, but who am I today?
Well, like my dad, I’m an industrial pipefitter. I do understand that most people don’t actually know what we do. I specialize in process piping, like power plants and refineries. Do you like having toilet paper, electricity, or gas for your car? Somebody like me helped build the places that make that stuff.
I’ve gotten to a stage in my career where I make a very comfortable income. The house we currently live in is beyond anything we could have thought about growing up. Yes, I work a lot of hours, but so do a lot of other professions. My family doesn’t, and they WILL NOT live in a trailer park anymore. I have no criminal record, and I’m only on my second wife.
So, before I make the next point, let me digress a little. How a person asks a question can tell a lot about them. I can tell that the person who originally asked the question has likely never worked a physical job. They’ve likely been mostly comfortable for the majority of their lives. Not everyone is that lucky.
I’m willing to bet that if the person asking the question, or most reading and answering it, saw me after work yall would try to keep your distance. After work, its typical for me to be sweaty, covered in grinding dust or worse. When stopping by a gas station or other store after work, I’ve seen people hold their purses closer, try to keep their children away. Many times, the public’s reaction to construction workers and homeless are very similar, particularly in more affluent areas.
So “what is white trash?” and “who is white trash?” From what I’m told that’d be me. I work hard and make in the low 6 figures a year. My family lives a very nice house in a very nice neighborhood. But its paid for with physical effort so I am less than yall. And by association, my family is.
Maybe I’m not as indifferent as I want to be.
Here Is Why The US Dares Not Have An Arms Race With China
Timeminders
Submitted into Contest #281 in response to: Start or end your story with someone receiving a strange — and possibly sinister — gift.… view prompt
Julija Veljkovic
But then, a wail cuts through the waves. It’s as if baby tarantulas crawl down my spine.
“Don’t look away, human.”
My own voice bounces back at me, sending fresh icy shivers down to my toes.
What the actual?
It speaks in my voice. That can’t be right. Instinct kicks in, screaming for me to move, run, hide, yell out, but the egg has other plans for me. It keeps me glued to the sand, mute as a glass doll, unable to do anything but bear witness to what’s unfolding.
This isn’t real. I squeeze my eyes shut again, but my eyelids disobey. It’s as if something—or someone—is controlling my every move.
I must bear witness.
“What the fuck?” I call out in my mind, thoughts cloudy from fear.
“We came when we heard what you were doing.”
If I could move muscle and bone, I would step closer. But as it turns out, I am held hostage by an oval-shaped object, so I stand still as a corpse.
“Who are you?” I call out in my mind.
“We are timeminders.”
Huh?
“That’s right.” The egg laughs back at me. “You are wasting time. You whine and complain and spend all your days in your head thinking about things that will never happen.”
“No, I don’t!” I bite back at my voice.
The egg cackles.
“When was the last time you saw a sunset?”
I pause, racing through my catalogue of memories, but only come back with a vague glimmer of an overpriced beachside watery cocktail I consumed a few months back in Ibiza. Even then, I was focused on capturing the perfect selfie because the afternoon light was waning, and I had to get the shading just right. I am always waiting for the right moment, but nothing arrives. Could it be that the egg is right?
I do the one thing I always do when I’m wrong. I change the subject.
“Who sent you?” I throw the question into the gust of wind, and the egg tilts to the left as if absorbing the impact of my words.
“We are connected, wall to wall. You can’t see the line, but we can. And we see everything.”
“That sounds like some Sci-Fi voodoo crap.”
The egg ignores me. “Don’t act like time is infinite. It’s not. Remember that Before I Die list?”
Another shudder envelops me. The egg has been watching my every move. Studying me studiously behind a looking glass I can’t reach or see.
Every year, right before Christmas, I produce my sodden Before I Die List and tack on a bunch of goals that never get crossed off. The list takes up a page and a half now. Corners of the paper have curled and smudged against the stain of time, and yet here I am, two days before Christmas, talking to a floating egg that appears to be time itself.
I hug myself into my arms and nod.
“Go write that book. Backpack across Nepal. Wake up for that sunrise. Quit gluten. Read 52 books. And get off Instagram.”
“And what if I don’t?”
“You humans are all the same. You act like your life is permanent. But it’s not. It can be over in a flash.”
“Ok, now you are starting to scare me.”
“We have to go. What you do with this information is entirely up to you. Goodbye now.”
And just as suddenly, the egg arrives, it evaporates into thin air.
I am left with the perfect Christmas gift. Time itself to do as I please. I contemplate my next move. I could dive into the icy cold water and battle the Atlantic currents in the hopes that the egg would come to my salvation again and explain itself. I could call my estranged mum and sob into the phone like a dazed and confused five-year-old. Or. I could keep walking down this beach and feel the sea air bite my cheeks and caress my insides. But that involves doing.
It’s as if my knees cave at that realization. I slide down until I am sitting on the moist sand, legs tucked underneath me. From some dark corner of my soul, a scream erupts. I scream and scream, letting my gut-filled cries get snuffed out by the bite of wind.
An elastic band snaps back into place. I am me again. Whole and pure, and alive. Calmy, I get up and walk on, gliding down the beach. For the first time, my thoughts slow to the beat of my heart.
China Does Not Care About The U.S Tariffs… Here’s Why!
Harmony
Submitted into Contest #281 in response to: Write a story from the POV of a non-human character.… view prompt
Vladimir Stefan
…..
My smartwatch vibrates and wakes me up abruptly. Darn it, I hit snooze again – I hate evening shifts! Feeling anxious, I quickly get up and start looking for my shirt. Today is a big shift for me, and I am fully prepared for it. I turn on the TV just for some background noise and prepare a quick milkshake. I grab my badge, place it in my coat pocket, and head down the stairs, leaving my bed messy and the TV on. Who knows if I’ll be able to return home later on tonight?
Making my way down the street, I feel once again desolate. The number of tents that have taken up the pavement is increasing every day and now I have to walk on the main road, where self-driving cars have plagued the roads. I can’t even flip the drivers off, because they are likely snoozing behind the wheel – heading up to their corporate masters and catching every ounce of sleep they can. The air feels heavy – decades of pollution, despite the warnings have made the air look dense, like a perpetual fog. Through the fog, I see the cafe and I make my way across the street.
I walk in to be greeted by a touchpad asking me what I want to order today. Can’t even sit down and relax for a second before ordering, anymore. I tap in twice for an espresso and take my number to wait in line. Only two other people in this café, who would’ve thought after all these years we would not even be able to afford a cuppa? I never thought affording an espresso would be the definition of privilege. The humanoid shouts my number and I approach the till to pick it up.
“Would you like to donate to …”
“Ah shove it, Wall-E.” I respond in disgust, picking up my coffee. They don’t care – can’t hurt their feelings.
These things have taken over. One day, they were just some useful web chat to hack your way into an essay deadline or a work presentation, now they’re everywhere – from baristas to teachers or police. Police AI – as if human racial profiling wasn’t enough, why not give that algorithm all of our knowledge and bias on crime and humans too?
I sit down and wait for Jonas, I hope he’s not going to stitch me up. I already feel paranoid enough about this, the last thing I want is to worry about him too. And this coffee is cold! So much for your intelligence, you can’t even boil some water! He finally arrives, walking in a rush and wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses. He looks odd, and if being inconspicuous was his aim, he missed the target. He sits down scanning the café:
“All right! I was afraid you wouldn’t show up!”
“Says the man who’s 20 minutes late, what took you so long?”
“This is precious cargo, Oli. I saw the police outside my flat. Luckily, they were just terrorising some tenters.”
Tenters were the homeless. The term was coined by real estate agents, to describe an area as desirable or not, based on the amount of tenters it had.
“Ok, how much do you have of it? If it all goes well, we might make a big statement here, Jonas.”
“Enough to make sure it sticks. Just be careful with it and don’t open it until you’re ready to apply it. Use gloves and keep your distance, this is dangerous stuff.” He says as he passes me a closed tin under the table. “Dip it and hold for a few seconds, that should do it”.
I nod and place the tin in my backpack, making sure nobody sees me. And nobody did, all two people here are just as exhausted as the rest of us. Constantly chasing nothing. Being replaced at the convenience of the rich who found a way to have microchipped slaves on the chains of production, leaving us to fend for ourselves in a world that we were not ready or trained for. As soon as the first wave of AI came in I knew I had to act and thus managed to learn machine robotics maintenance. I was sure, that one day, we would transform that friendly chat box into a human-like, walking piece of software. I just didn’t think it would be in my lifetime.
I leave Jonas and make my way to work. The city feels eerily empty. The sound of wind blowing through tents and the occasional passing of a self-driving car breaks the silence. I miss the music, the shouting, the cheering, the drunks. The humanity I despised at times so much I yearn for it now with every fibre in my body. Shops are closed and are being replaced with screens where you can see photos of products and order them straight home, where a humanoid will deliver you whatever thing you can afford. Restaurants are a privilege of the rich and don’t exist anymore. The most you may find is a burger van, selling cheap synthetic-protein burgers and milkshakes – the real ones. I stop by to grab something for the shift ahead. It only cost me an hour’s wage, but sod it, might be my last meal, who knows?
I arrive at the facility and scan my badge at the turnstiles. I do the usual routine controls and checks and answer some emails before I have to head down to the pods. Another “business change” email from the boss. Guess we’re in for a few more redundancies, the norm. I get up and head to the lunchroom to have my burger in peace. On the wall, I see the latest announcements – Fundraiser for Julie – her husband lost his job and now she’s forced to raise money from colleagues to avoid being a tenter. We used to be one of the first people working here, me and her. And like everyone else, we are sure that some of the new generations are going to be trained to replace us as well. After all, why shouldn’t the machine look after the machines? I eat my crappy burger contemplating the task ahead and the anger that I’ve bottled for so long. This is all the rich’s fault and I shouldn’t feel guilty, no. There is so much you can beat one down before it starts fighting back. Throughout this time all they did was shift the blame onto the poor for not educating themselves or getting on with the times. Their tall fences can’t always protect them. One sip of a real milkshake and I’m ready to go.
I make my way down the stairs and into the charging room to grab my maintenance tools. So many of these copy-clone creatures just casually sucking volts before carrying on with their mundane tasks. They are all the same. Non-feeling, ritualistic pieces of software only capable of performing what their masters set them to do. I guess we are not so different, in the end. Only we get to be angry about it. I check every one of their status for tomorrow. Some are going to the milkshake powder factory, others to the food processing one. I do an eeny, meeny, miny, moe amongst them and settle for one: XA781 seems to be the lucky fella. Food processor, 3rd generation – perfect. Means he’s on the line for the steaks tomorrow morning.
I grab some gloves from a locker and rest my backpack next to the humanoid. I bring the tin up and carefully open it, keeping a distance to not inhale any of it. Anthrax is no joke and the mission would be pointless if it were to kill me. I take the tin and dip it upwardly into the humanoid’s fingers, making sure not much of the substance stands out, but enough of it remains on its hands for it to be contaminated. I carefully move on to the next one: SD428. I repeat this about 60 more times to ensure the mission will be a success. And if I don’t get caught, maybe I will get to enjoy my bed one more night, whilst some of these rich devils get to enjoy it for one last time.
What is the secret to survival?
A Jew, owner of one of the most famous bakeries in Germany, often said: “Do you know why I am alive today?
I was still a teenager when the Nazis in Germany mercilessly murdered Jews. The Nazis took us to Auschwitz by train. Last night in the ward it was deadly cold. We were left for many days in the car without food, without a bed, which means no possibility of warming ourselves in any way. It was snowing everywhere. The cold wind froze our cheeks every second. There were hundreds of us on those cold and horrible nights. No food, no water, no hiding places. The blood is frozen in the veins. Next to me was an old Jew who was very loved in my town. She was shivering and looked terrible. I wrapped my hands around him to warm him. I hugged him tightly to give him some warmth. Rubbed his hands, legs, face, neck. I begged him to stay alive. I cheered him up. This is how I kept this man warm all night, I was tired and freezing myself, I kept my fingers crossed, but I continued to massage this man’s body to warm him up.
So many hours passed. Finally morning came, the sun began to shine. I looked around to see other people. To my horror, all I could see were frozen corpses. All I could hear was the silence of death. The freezing night killed everyone. They froze to death. Only two people survived: the old man and me. The old man survived because I didn’t let him freeze, and I survived because I warmed him up.
Let me tell you the secret of survival in this world. When you warm the hearts of others, then you will warm yourself. When you support, strengthen and encourage others, you receive support, strengthening and encouragement in your life.
Rednote EXPOSES the Truth: Americans Say China Lives Better… And the US is a 3rd World Country!
What was the relationship between Philippines and China before the South China Sea disputes?
When Duterte was president, he realised it is better to be friends with China than enemy and trade and co-operation boomed.
He said war with China is a disaster Philippines cannot win and he is right
Bong Bong like his US master, reverseed all that in pursuit of the lure US held before him and his mother for regaining his father’s stolen wealth stolen by the thieving US.
The Adage:
Thieves of a feather lie together!
The US is NOT Ready for War with China: DeepSeek AI Triggers Chaos in US Tech Sector
What is daily life like for foreigners living in China who create content on Xiaohongshu?
I just saw an article by an American creator.
She followed the recipe from Xiaohongshu and made Chinese food for 4 people, which cost a total of $13.5.
She said that she would never go to a Chinese restaurant in the United States again.
For right-wing libertarians: Why should a factory owner receive more profit than the workers who constructed and maintain said factory?
An easy personal story. I bought a company, had 155 employees. The company was in construction we had several buildings 2 for storage, 1 a workshop, 1 a metal fabrication shop and the other an office. In the 2009 the construction industry took a severe downturn. I’ve seen this happen before and saw a recovery so I decided to stick it out.
Let me explain what stick it our means. The buildings and property had taxes, electric, natural gas. The fleet of vehicles had license, insurance, maintenance, and gas. The employees needed paychecks, or they would leave and there is no construction without employees. My wife and I went without paychecks for several months at a time. We took out loans to make payroll so employees wouldn’t leave. We had to guarantee those loans with our personal assets, house and vehicles.
Well, the construction industry came back and there was a severe storm causing massive amounts of residential damage. This gave us substantial amounts of work. We made enough money to hire more employees and pay all of our loans back. We got out of debt and made a lot of money.
What people like you see is the owner buying new car, maybe a boat or a UTV. Taking some time off to enjoy their new toys. What you never saw was the owner in jeopardy of losing their business, home, cars, all the money they initially invested, AND if those assets were not enough still being in debt to the bank for the remainder. The only recourse is personal bankruptcy.
So, as an employee would you be willing to throw in 50% of your net worth, then go several months without pay so your employer could stay in business? Even if your employer promised to double your pay IF the company made it full well knowing, that you also have to rely on the other 149 employees to help or they could tank the company, and you lose everything.
Sorry bud, but you know nothing.
TikTok Refugees Share Their RedNote Experience That Will Blow your Mind.
Have a good prediction now! Is the US going to kidnap CEO of Chinese DeepSeek like what the US & Canada did to the CEO of Huawei or ban or force Chinese DeepSeek to sell their technologies/company to the US like what the US has been doing to TikTok?
Here is my prediction: Yes. So be careful Mr. Liang Wenfeng, founder of DeepSeek, and make sure to watch your AI product carefully. If you become the target of the US government, you will be either be arrested by the US/Canadian police, like Meng Wanzhou of Huawei, or be forced to sell you DeepSeek app to an American citizen by the US government, like Shou Zi Chew of TikTok; or maybe both. The US government will take all measures possible to deal with any company that dares to be better than its US counterparts.
With its highly efficient algorithm and powerful capacity, Chinese AI app DeepSeek rises rapidly these days. It’s newly released open source AI model DeepSeek V3 immediately becomes popular in AI industry. It outperforms other open source models and achieves performance comparable to leading closed source models. More importantly, the training costs for the model is $5.58 million, about one-twentieth of GPT-4o. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in an interview that DeepSeek is “super impressive in terms of both how they have really effectively done an open source model that does this inference-time compute, and is super-compute efficient.”
But this will also probably provoke envy from the US government. After all, any country or company that outperform the US will be sanctioned, which has been proved by what happened to China’s companies like Huawei, Dji and TikTok. DeepSeek represents China’s strong innovation capacity that the US government does not want to see. “National security” has become a weapon for the US government to sanction those companies that dare to challenge the positions of US companies.
Ironically, the more the US government sanctions Chinese companies, the stronger the Chinese companies will be. For example, the US government forbids NASA to have cooperation with China, and the result is that China has successfully developed its lunar and space exploration programs and launched its own space stations; the US government banned advanced chip export to China, and the result is that China’s SMIC is now the world’s third largest advanced chip manufacturer. There are many of such examples.
So, will DeepSeek be sanctioned by the US government? Let’s wait and see.
Why is Japan not suitable for long term stay?
I am a Malaysian who started out learning Japanese at the age of 19 went to Japan at the age of 20 and finally ended my journey in Japan at the age of 35 and just came back to home country Malaysia 3 months ago.
Since I am Chinese so I look like them and apparently my Japanese was very close to native level and I also worked as a producer in some big gaming companies before and I even build a game studio before by hiring 35 Japanese permanent staffs.
I would say that my experience is somewhat beyond what a normal Japanese person life could had been and base on my own experiences and perspective yes I agree that Japan is not worth doing long stay. But I see it as a very different angle.
- The tax is too high and it will only get higher. For high income people who owns a business your company and your personal income will BOTH gets a 55% cut maximum and its non negotiable when you earn a lot. In Malaysia, taxes are negotiable and I going with 15% only flat rate right now. That alone was big enough to leave Japan and re-establish my studio in Malaysia.
- The lack of competitiveness and the eagerness to try and learn from the younger generations. As a business owner we will always need younger staffs who are keen to learn with passion especially in my line of creativity but this is getting very rare in Japan these days even in Tokyo. I will blame it on the government who kinda cater towards the older generations as the whole country now is basically a BIG ASS old folks home with full support to elders as squeezing young adults for pension. And with less younger working adults and more elderly to feed with their long life span you can kinda see it’s a ticking bomb anytime soon.
- Besides the tax they make you pay for health insurance compulsory. And like the tax the health insurance will also increase every year making it a burden to young adults who just started to work. In countries like Malaysia health insurance is not a must and our medicine is cheap. In Japan if you do not pay for your health insurance which is called 健康保険 all medical fees will be +70% imagine that.
- Now if you understand the high tax rate and low income and low passion from the young generations what do they prefer to do now? Well here is the darkside. Host clubs and girls bars, men’s health care massage and sugar daddy are so common that it was not even known as a problem anymore in Japan. It comes to a point that a prostitute can be an ideal soulmate for some men who just spend so much time in work and earning a little. Thus it comes with their heavy drinking culture which is called 飲みニケーション and there is normally a companionship there to attend them.
- one of the best long term investment ever known in within this 80 years of history is property. While Japan is full of earthquake and with the Nankai Plate splitting anytime soon it’s crazy just how Japanese companies could manipulate their property prices so high even until today. There are still people who wants to live in high skyscraper buildings and those properties are super overvalued from my own judgement. I single strike on Mother Nature could had collapse the whole market and we had seen them at with the 2011 tohoku earthquake. So on a business perspective and risk management would u rather listen to the broker who tries to sell you a USD10 million prop in Tokyo and saying the price will continue to rise or would you rather pay USD3 million for Malaysia property in KL and has 5 times more land with NO earthquake and any other sorts of nature disaster? It seems pretty obvious.
studies there, earn millions in Japan , appended it like crazy on companion girls, bought some companies sold it off went through corona and the 2011 earthquake been through a few love life with Japanese girls… yea I do not recommend a long stay in Japan.
Come to Southeast Asia , we are getting more advance now and our prices and taxes are still very cheap haha.
cheers and hope this helps!!
A key driver of BRICS expansion: lower prices for everything
Do the Chinese know the Tiananmen protest and killing Uyghur?
Chinese people all know about the Tian’anmen incident and none know about killing Uyghurs.
Because we know what happened and is happening in China. You cannot convince us of something that goes completely against our everyday reality. I lived through the Tian’anmen protests and I met my wife while on tour as a volunteer educator in Xinjiang. We simply know the truths better than you do. It’s like how we can not convince the Americans that their healthcare is free.
The problem with American propaganda is the same with major American companies. Many of them fail in China, like Ebay, Amazon, Linked-in, because they are unflexible and one-sidedly take orders from their headquarters in the US. But the people in the US are too limited by their own understanding of the world, their bias and their short history, which may have been enough in some banana republic, but is totally outclassed by the vibrancy and complexity of a 5000 year civilization. OTOH, the people who understand the situation on the ground in China, are not given enough voice. For the same reason, they will fail in India too.
In China you must listen to the voice of the Chinese. KFC succeeds in China because they serve soybean juice and porridge instead of milk for breakfast. Tesla succeeds in China because it respects the Chinese researchers and engineers and have them train their American counterparts instead.
To wage propaganda war on China, you cannot just use the out of touch scripts from Washington. You need to listen to your foot soldiers on the ground in Beijing and make necessary adjustments. Like how the American embassy in China predicted years in advance that the Communist rebels holed up in remote mountains would beat the rich Nationalists armed with American weapons.
To drive up ethnic tension you cannot say that China persecutes Uyghurs which only gets laughed at, the right way to do it is to push the Chinese complaint that the CCP is too pro-minority and Han Chinese are left behind in university entrance exams and the right to have as many children etc, that in a few generations China may lose Xinjiang as the Uyghurs outreproduce the Han. Complain that China treats the Uyghurs too well, relocates too much money and resources from coastal provinces to Xinjiang, and that it should take care of Han first and enforce equality for all Chinese. That will connect with the average Chinese and drive up ethnic tensions.
To drive up people’s memories of Tian’anmen, you cannot just claim that it was about democracy vs authoritarian, which is pre-school fairy tale, but accurately tap into the anti-capitalist sentiment that was the very reason for the protest and is still alive and kicking today in China. You should raise the banner of “death to income inequality”, or “kill the Capitalists” to connect with the hearts and minds of millions of oppressed Chinese workers and students disillusioned with their future during Tian’anmen and are actively complaining online today. The US should shoot all the Boeing executives for the 787 crashes to establish itself as a beacon for democracy and justice, to encourage people in China to demand the death of people like Jack Ma and Elon Musk, because they earn more than the average workers, but doesn’t reinvest the earnings into wellfare for the workers, and instead live luxurious life styles like keeping yachts. That Chinese tech companies that advocate 996 schedules should be confiscated and nationalized. And honor chairman Mao as the greatest human being of the 20th century like Chinese people believe, and call for a return to the equality of Maoist days.
Or maybe the US isn’t serious about propaganding the Chinese against the CCP at all. That the people are just clocking in and clocking out of the office without any regard for results. Or that the capitalists funding their propaganda are secretly against the results, so they only funnel public budget to themselves.
Why is DEI so destructive?
When it comes to the field of education, the “E” and “I” parts of DEI are the most destructive.
The “E” stands for “equity.” That replaced “equality” as the mantra in education about 10–15 years ago. With equality, the focus was on equal treatment. With equity, the focus is on equal outcomes.
Ultimately, you end up with policies like:
- “Grading for equity,” which forces teachers to factor “empathy” into their formative assessments of students. So, if there’s a 100-question test, and a student only gets 50 questions correct, but that student has challenges outside of school, like parents who live in poverty, the teacher is expected to give that student bonus points, so their grade is more equitable to their peers who do not live in poverty.
- “50% floor for grades,” which is exactly what it sounds like. A student can turn in 0% work and still get a 50% grade. The idea is that they won’t dig themselves into such a hole that they just give up.
- Elimination of honors programs, because the demographics in those programs aren’t reflective of the demographics of the community as a whole. The high flyers have their wings clipped so they’ll fly at the same level as everyone else. Sucks for the high flyers, though.
- Lax discipline policies (usually called something like “restorative justice”), which result in an explosion of behavior problems with students, which is directly responsible for the current teacher shortage. There are more than enough certified teachers in this country. There just aren’t enough who are willing to put up with the behavior problems in schools. Many school districts have “no suspensions” policies in place now, for equity reasons. The lack of suspensions just means that the troublemakers stay in the classroom more.
- Lowered standards for graduation, leading to inflated graduation rates. This, in turn, leads to students taking out loans for college under the false assumption that they were prepared for college. Colleges have also had to increase their remedial course offerings for new students. It also cheapens the value of a high school diploma for everyone, when literally any student can get one.
The “I” part of DEI (Inclusion) has been around in education since the late 70s. When people talk about “inclusion” in education, they’re usually talking about putting students with special needs in regular classrooms. This actually isn’t a big deal, as long as those students don’t significantly increase the teacher’s workload, or cause major disruptions for their classmates. All of that is usually possible, if schools had the proper resources, which they usually don’t. In fact, one of the main purposes of “inclusion,” these days, is to save the district money from hiring special education teachers. The actual result of “inclusion” in schools is usually more like:
- Students with major behavioral issues being allowed to disrupt their classmates. It’s not just the students who cannot stop talking or wandering the room while the teacher is trying to teach. It’s also the students who trash their classrooms. It’s not uncommon now, in many public schools, for teachers to have to tell all of the other students to leave a room, because a student with a behavioral special need is “in crisis” and trashing the room.
- Teachers being overwhelmed with unrealistic expectations for their students with special needs. Every student with special needs has something called an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) or a 504, which is like an IEP-lite. Those are legally-binding forms which say exactly what teachers are supposed to do for that one student. Have five students with special needs in your class of 30 students? Good luck for those other 25 students getting any of the teacher’s attention.
No one really cares about the “D” part of DEI, when it comes to education, except the politicians and others in positions of power who like pictures of diverse groups of students for their websites and social media. If you’re the only kid in a wheelchair at your public school, congrats! You’re going to find your way into a lot of the district’s pictures.
TikTok Refugees Share Their RedNote Experience That Will Blow your Mind.
What is your biggest “only in the USA” moment?
I broke my foot when I was 28, was working about 65 hours a week, and both jobs required walking, as most do.
After waiting for six hours, the first thing the hospital did was check my credit rating. By that time, my foot was too swollen to operate on. They relocated my ankle, but three bones were fractured.
I had to wait three weeks before getting surgery, and afterwards, was told I couldn’t walk for at least four months.
Before the injury, I was about $1,000.00 away from being out of debt. I had paid off over $40,000.00 in two years.
I was living in a room in an apartment in Spanish Harlem. It was a five story walk up, and for a few months, I could barely move at all. I had to have my family and friends bring me food, as I couldn’t waste money on delivery. As I couldn’t stand for long, I couldn’t cook, so I ate almost nothing but Hot Pockets. To this day, I can’t even stand the sight of a Hot Pocket.
As I no longer had an income, I had to live off credit cards. They raised my interest rates, and by the time I was ready to go back to work, I was $50,000.00 in debt. The surgery lasted a couple of hours and cost over $15,000.00 (it would be a lot more today), and at that point I decided I was done paying credit card debts.
Back then (2004ish), you could default without filing for bankruptcy and your debt would be forgiven in seven years. They want you to have credit cards again so they can charge you interest again.
Still, one third party agency tried to collect in 2017. They found a loophole. If they sued every six years, they could reopen that seven year window.
I’m not 100% sure, but I had been abroad, and think they found me when I registered to vote. I had just landed a corporate job, and a month after registering to vote, they started garnishing my wages. I paid a lawyer $2,000.00 and he got my wages back and the debt cancelled. He explained that after a debt had been bought and sold so many times, it was doubtful the collection agency had the original paperwork to validate the debt.
Work your ass off, pay your debts, and one freak accident becomes a $50,000.00, 12 year ordeal.
I know people have it worse in undeveloped countries, and I’ve managed to buy a co-op and save, but one severe accident could still ruin me, and I got lucky.
Do you think the new Chinese A.I. app from China could be a Trojan horse? The Chinese Government can have access to all the data.
You should be more suspicious, is ChatGDP a Trojan horse?
After all, the U.S. government and American companies have done these things.
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) once pointed out that all modern Intel processor platforms have a built-in low-power subsystem Intel Management Engine. It can fully access and control the PC, including starting and shutting down the computer, reading open files, checking all running programs, tracking keystrokes and mouse movements, and even capturing screenshots. Its network interface has been proven to be unsafe, and attackers can implant rootkit programs to control and invade the computer.
In addition, according to an article on May 31, 2024, hackers have written backdoors and Trojans in AMD’s K8 and K10 processor microcodes.
The United States has also monitored the mobile phones of German Merkel, French President Chirac, Sarkozy, and Hollande.
Rednote EXPOSES the Truth: Americans Say China Lives Better… And the US is a 3rd World Country!
What happens when Americans discover the truth about life in China? In this jaw-dropping Rednote compilation, we bring you raw and unfiltered reactions as Americans learn how the Chinese afford groceries, healthcare, and more—without drowning in debt. From shock to frustration, many even claim that America feels like a 3rd world country compared to China’s advancements.
Watch as they grapple with the reality of China’s thriving society and question their own situation back home. Will this change their perspective? You’ll have to see their reactions to believe it!
Is China really that confident that they can beat the U.S. militarily?
When I learned that U.S. soldiers have to pay to join the military, pay rent to live in barracks, and that 30% of veterans end up homeless, with most suffering from various mental illnesses, I couldn’t help but wonder: where exactly is the U.S. military budget being spent? It’s certain that it’s not being used on actual military capabilities. Does the U.S. military really have the strength to win a war against a true regional power? I’m not talking about China, but countries like Turkey, Iran, or India. My guess is no. The U.S. military is plagued by poor discipline, low training standards, outdated equipment, and maintenance difficulties, with most ships covered in rust. The U.S. has effectively lost its global military dominance, as well as its technological and舆论 hegemony. The last pillar, financial hegemony, is on the verge of collapse. All I can say is, the U.S. should tread carefully.
The controversy surrounding the use of U.S. military spending and its military capabilities requires a comprehensive analysis based on multiple sources of information. Below, we discuss the allocation of military funds, existing issues within the U.S. military, assessments of combat capabilities, and changes in global hegemony, incorporating specific data and context from search results.
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I. The Actual Use of U.S. Military Spending
1. **Structural Contradictions in Military Spending Allocation**
According to the U.S. defense budget for fiscal year 2025, out of **$895.2 billion in military spending**, the main expenditures include:
– **Operations and Maintenance (O&M)**: $339.6 billion (37.9%), used for maintaining existing equipment, base operations, and daily military activities;
– **Personnel Costs**: $181.9 billion (20.3%), covering active-duty salaries, benefits, and veteran安置;
– **Procurement and R&D**: $167.5 billion (18.7%) for procurement and $143.2 billion (16%) for R&D, primarily for developing new weapons.
This shows that **the majority of U.S. military spending is used to sustain the existing military system** rather than directly enhancing combat capabilities. For example, maintaining over 500 overseas military bases and high personnel福利 (e.g., an average annual cost of $100,000 per soldier) consumes significant resources.
2. Profit Distribution in the Military-Industrial Complex**
Systemic corruption and inefficiency plague U.S. military equipment procurement. Examples include:
– **Overpriced Equipment**: The U.S. “Arleigh Burke”-class destroyer costs $2 billion per unit, while China’s comparable 055型 destroyer costs less than half;
– **Supply Chain Waste**: The U.S. defense industry relies on oligopolies, with profit-driven practices leading to失控 costs, such as a bag of buttons being priced at tens of thousands of dollars when the actual cost is a few dollars;
– **Inefficient R&D**: U.S. think tank reports indicate that China’s equipment更新速度 is 5-6 times faster than the U.S., and U.S. defense production capacity struggles to meet high-intensity conflict demands (e.g., a 2-year production cycle for anti-ship missiles in Taiwan Strait scenarios).
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3. Existing Issues and Combat Capabilities of the U.S. Military
1. **Shortcomings in Training and Equipment Maintenance**
– **Insufficient Training**: Budget cuts have reduced training hours for基层 personnel, leading to frequent accidents (e.g., multiple recent aircraft crashes);
– **Aging Equipment**: Navy ships are rusting, and Air Force aircraft average over 30 years in age, with a severe maintenance backlog;
– **Ammunition Reserve Crisis**: The Ukraine war exposed vulnerabilities in the U.S. ammunition supply chain. Although procurement increased in FY2025, reliance on allied production lines remains a risk.
4. Controversy Over Capabilities Against Regional Powers**
The U.S. military has both advantages and disadvantages when facing countries like Turkey, Iran, and India:
– **Technological Superiority**: The U.S. leads in space, cyber, and stealth aircraft domains, but over-reliance on technology may be offset by asymmetric tactics (e.g., Iran’s drone and missile strategies);
– **Logistics and Mobilization Capabilities**: The U.S. military’s global deployment is分散, and prolonged conflicts could expose后勤 weaknesses (e.g., Guam’s defense system is not yet完备);
– **Political Will and Allied Support**: Domestic political divisions may weaken decision-making efficiency (e.g., delays in Ukraine aid bills), while allies’ reliance on the U.S. is declining (e.g., Europe’s shift toward strategic autonomy).
—
5. Signs of Decline in U.S. Global Hegemony
1. **Erosion of Military Hegemony**
– **Weak Growth in Military Spending**: The FY2025 defense budget increased by only 1%, far below previous years, and the national debt ($34 trillion) constrains future investments;
– **Regional Deterrence Failures**: U.S. military operations in the South China Sea and Western Pacific have exposed tactical flaws, while China’s rapid shipbuilding pace (“shipbuilding spree”) has narrowed the naval gap.
2. **Multidimensional Hegemony Crisis**
– **Hollowing Out of Technology and Industry**: U.S. manufacturing accounts for only 11% of GDP, with key industries like semiconductors依赖亚洲供应链;
– **Shaky Financial Hegemony**: The dollar’s dominance faces challenges from digital currencies and multipolar结算, while国债信用评级 is under pressure;
– **Public Opinion and Institutional Challenges**: Domestic social divisions and the military-industrial complex’s influence over policy have weakened strategic coherence.
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6. Conclusion: Structural Contradictions and Future Challenges
The high投入 of U.S. military spending has not translated into equivalent combat capabilities, rooted in **resource allocation imbalances, systemic corruption, and strategic overextension**. Although the U.S. military retains technological advantages, its global deployment model and domestic political-economic困境 make it difficult to应对 high-intensity局部战争. In conflicts with regional powers like Turkey or Iran, the U.S. military may find itself in a “win tactically, lose strategically” dilemma.
As acknowledged in U.S. Department of Defense reports, **the cost of “maintaining hegemony” has exceeded its承受能力**, and the rise of countries like China is accelerating this process. The key variable for the future lies in whether the U.S. can重塑 competitiveness through reforms (e.g., cutting冗余开支, rebuilding industrial bases), but this possibility remains slim in the short term.
How could China successfully develop the advanced AI model, the DeepSeek, under the US’s sanctions on chips? And from the news I heard, this Chinese AI Model is not a copycat from the OpenAI as it uses a different model, how is this possible?
Deepseek is the product from the quant arm of a hedge fund.
We need not concern ourselves with names, merely to note two features.
One. The quant team was primarily made up of local graduates.
Two. The reorganization in the financial sector engendered a shift in priorities from proprietary trading to LLM.
The team took stock of their situation. They had a limited budget and access to hardware, so they had to improve efficiency in order to build something competitive. This is akin to shaving weight off a race car and improving its CD or coefficient of drag to compensate for a less powerful engine.
Instead of a brute force attack, they found that rewarding or incentivizing desired output dramatically improved training efficiency.
In fact, this strategy draws strong parallels with positive reinforcement training in dogs, which is demonstrably superior to discipline and punishment.
Which goes to show the deepseek team used chatgpt as the standard bearer, but pursued its own ground up design to accommodate ground realities.
Or, necessity being the mother of all invention.
Deepseek implemented a series of clever ideas, such as treating phrases as vectors rather than scalars, compartmentalizing the parameter space into subjects (I.e. Solving a partial model), reducing precision to save on memory and so on as computational optimization.
I expect the team to blow us out of the water in the coming months and years ahead.
I have been mighty impressed thus far.
Gado Gado (Indonesian salad with peanut sauce)
Gado Gado – fun to say, delicious to eat, this traditional Indonesian salad is probably the only recipe where you can put the words “blanched vegetables” and “tasty” in the same sentence and really mean it. That Gado Gado peanut sauce is a miracle worker!
A Bali food favourite, it’s healthy and endlessly versatile. Use ANY vegetables – raw or cooked!
Gado Gado – Indonesian Salad with Peanut Sauce
This is a dish for the veg hating child within all of us. Clever Indonesians figured out a way to make plain vegetables completely irresistible to everyone – by drizzling with a sweet savoury Indonesian peanut sauce!
Because seriously – if you plonk a giant plate of boiled vegetables in front of me and call it dinner, I would look at you like you’d lost your mind.
But then if peanut sauce makes an appearance…. suddenly, dinner gets a whole lot more exciting. Gado Gado! We love saying the name, we love how colourful it is, we most definitely love eating it, and we REALLY love that how virtuous it makes us feel, scoffing down so many vegetables for dinner!
“Gado Gado” means “mix-mix” which is appropriate for this versatile dish that can be made with any mix of vegetables
What goes in Gado Gado Peanut Sauce
Gado Gado is all about the peanut sauce which is a slight variation of Thai Peanut Sauce.
When made from scratch, it’s a bit of a pain, calling for pureeing roasted peanuts (and it’s tough to make it completely smooth), a handful of aromatics like lemongrass, galangal, garlic, South East Asian “umami” from shrimp paste, plus sauces.
So I take a cheeky but highly effective shortcut using a bit of Thai red curry paste. It has the same ingredients, and saves a bunch of time, effort and money. Win, win, win!
- Thai red curry paste – my favourite brand its Maesri. Best most authentic flavour by far – and happens to be the cheapest at ~$1.50 for a little can. Available at large grocery stores in Australia (Coles, Woolworths, Harris Farms) and of course, Asian stores. And yes, dear regular readers, you just read the same about Massaman Curry paste in Friday’s lamb shanks recipe!!
- Natural peanut butter – Natural peanut butter is 100% peanuts and has a stronger peanut flavour than commercial peanut butter which has sugar and other additives. Pretty widely available nowadays in the health food section of supermarkets. Can use normal peanut butter spread but the peanut flavour is not as good and sauce will be thicker. Do not be tempted to dilute with too much water – it will dilute the flavour!
- Kecap Manis – dark sweet thick sweet Indonesian soy sauce. Thicker and sweeter than normal soy sauce, with a consistency like syrup. Here in Australia, kecap manis is available in major supermarkets and Asian stores. Easy sub: honey and dark soy sauce. Also used for: Nasi Goreng (Indonesian Fried Rice), Indonesian Satay Chicken and Mie Goreng Noodles;
- Coconut milk – flavour and creaminess for the sauce;
- Lime and garlic – tang and flavour!
What goes in Gado Gado
The whole point of Gado Gado is to be versatile, so while Gado Gado in Indonesia will usually be served with one or two ingredients you mightn’t be familiar with (such as Morning Glory, bitter gourd, chayote), you will likely recognise most ingredients.
Spinach, beansprouts, egg and cucumber are typically included, so I’ve included it in mine. Potato is my starch of choice, though you could easily include some rice instead, or bulk out on more filling vegetables such as broccoli or cauliflower.
It’s nice to include a variety of textures and colours, as well as a starch so it makes a satisfying meal. Any potato, or something like pumpkin, or vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower are great for filling out this salad to make it a meal that will keep you full.
Tempeh
The one ingredient you spy in the above that you mightn’t be familiar with is tempeh. Tempeh is an Indonesian fermented soy bean product that vegetarians are mad for!😂
It has a texture like firm tofu, but meatier, and it tastes nutty – kind of like sunflower seeds. Nowadays, it’s usually available in the tofu section of large supermarkets in Australia (Wooles, Coles, Harris Farms).
Here’s what it looks like raw:
And here is how it fries up in the skillet.
Yes, it tastes as crispy and good as it looks!
Can’t find tempeh – or doesn’t appeal??
Totally fine. Substitute with crispy tofu (included in recipe) or just leave it out and add another vegetable!
How to make Gado Gado
There’s a few components to making Gado Gado but it’s very straightforward:
- Peanut sauce – plonk in saucepan, simmer 5 minutes;
- Vegetables – blanch vegetables that need cooking;
- Crispy tempeh or tofu – fry it up last so they’re nice and crispy, fresh out of the skillet;
- Pile up the platter and serve it up!
Prawn Crackers – optional
Oh – I haven’t mentioned prawn crackers yet. They are traditionally served on the side of Gado Gado – terrific crunchy addition that doubles as an eating vessel.
I feel like Gado Gado has so many components to it as is, it’s kind of like the cherry on top. That is – I include it when I’m making for friends, leave it out when it’s a quick(ish) meal for myself.
Buy a bag ready made, fry them up yourself (you’ll find raw prawn crackers in the Asian aisle of most large supermarkets nowadays) or a quick no-fry microwave popping option – just place 8 to 10 on the edge of a microwave turntable and microwave for 20 to 30 seconds. (Yes really, it works 100%).
How to serve Gado Gado
Gado Gado is a mega salad that’s intended to be served as a main course salad. But it also works beautifully as part of a spread for sharing. The recipe as written below is for 2 people, but if you add a side of Nasi Goreng (Indonesian Fried Rice) or Mee Goreng (Indonesian Noodles) it would easily serve 4.
If you wanted to bulk out the meal with some rice, add a side of coconut rice (people go bonkers over coconut rice with peanut sauce!).
It travels well, being a dish that can be served at room temperature (tempeh aside), and reheats very quickly if you so choose (the vegetables warm quickly).
But mostly, think of Gado Gado as a means to consume lots of vegetables in an extremely delicious form. I mean, you could blitz up another green smoothie that tastes like grass (because you got too enthusiastic with the kale, thinking well if I’m gonna do this, I may as well load it up), that you force yourself to drink all the while pinching your nose.
Or you could do what the Indonesians do – cook up a pile of vegetables and douse it in peanut sauce.
I’ll take the latter any day. 😉 – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
How will the Chinese government regulate DeepSeek’s AI Assistant, given its limitations when asked about certain topics like Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s policies?
Can I ask chatGPT to criticize Israel?
How will the USA government regulate chatGPT’s AI Assistant?
Since Deepseek is not interested in running for U.S. Congress, it does not need to rely on criticizing China to divert domestic conflicts, nor does it need to use anti-China topics to attract American votes, let alone cater to Americans’ “political correctness.”
Non-tech people view it as China against US. Tech people view it as open-source against closed source.
Remember Deepseek is not an AI or IT related company. Their major business is hedge fund quant. R1 is merely their “side project” developed for their stock market analysis use. Such a small entity with a few million$ as a side project has beaten the 5000 trillion$ of OpenAI, ms, google, meta combined. Can it be more hilarious?
DeepSeek was a Chinese quant dude’s side quest LOL…and STILL outperformed OpenAI, Meta, etc!
The better thing wins and now billionaires are annoyed.
The multi – trillion – dollar AI bubble in the United States is teetering on the brink of collapse. In contrast, DeepSeek, which has received only a few million in investment from China, has effortlessly shattered this seemingly impregnable bubble.
Chinese Showing American Tiktok Refugees How They Live Their Life On Rednote
A must watch!