(Repost) Cities as dangerous snares – the doomed mouse utopia scientific study. (duplicate)

Well, it's gonna be the year of the rat in a few days. What would be more appropriate than to discuss RAT lifestyle in urban centers?

On July 9th, 1968, eight white mice were placed into a strange box at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

Maybe “box” isn’t the right word for it; the space was more like a room, known as “Universe 25”, and it was large. It was about the size of a small storage unit.

The mice themselves were bright and healthy, hand-picked from the institute’s breeding stock.

They were given the run of the place, which had everything they might need: food, water, climate control, hundreds of nesting boxes to choose from, and a lush floor of shredded paper and ground corn cob. It was a mouse paradise. It was perfect in every way.

Of course, this is a far cry from a wild mouse’s life. There were no predators, no cats, no traps, no long winters. It was even better than your average lab mouse’s life. Which, of course, is constantly interrupted by white-coated humans with scalpels or syringes.

The residents of “Universe 25” were mostly left alone, save for one man who would peer at them from above, and his team of similarly interested assistants. They must have thought they were the luckiest mice in the world.

They couldn’t have known the truth: that within a few years, they and their descendants would all be dead.

John Bumpass Calhoun

The man who played mouse-God and came up with this doomed universe was named John Bumpass Calhoun.

As Edmund Ramsden and Jon Adams detail in a paper, “Escaping the Laboratory: The Rodent Experiments of John B. Calhoun & Their Cultural Influence,” Calhoun spent his childhood traipsing around Tennessee, chasing toads, collecting turtles, and banding birds. These adventures eventually led him to a doctorate in biology, and then a job in Baltimore, where he was tasked with studying the habits of Norway rats, one of the city’s chief pests.

Conditions of the utopia.

Rat utopia living arrangements within Universe 25.

No shortage of food, water and nesting material.
No predators.
Limited opportunities for transmissible disease.
The only adversity: space limitation – the size of the habitat was predicted to host 3840 mice.

The first utopia.

In 1947, to keep a close eye on his charges, Calhoun constructed a quarter-acre “rat city” behind his house, and filled it with breeding pairs. He expected to be able to house 5,000 rats there, but over the two years he observed the city, the population never exceeded 150. At that point, the rats became too stressed to reproduce. They started acting weirdly, rolling dirt into balls rather than digging normal tunnels. They hissed and fought.

This fascinated Calhoun—if the rats had everything they needed, what was keeping them from overrunning his little city, just as they had all of Baltimore? Why couldn’t they thrive in a rodent utopia?

The subsequent utopias.

Intrigued, Calhoun built another, slightly bigger rat metropolis—this time in a barn, with ramps connecting several different rooms.

Then he redesigned the structure, and built another.

Then taking the lessons learned, he built another.

And another.

Then he built another and another, hopping between patrons that supported his research, and framing his work in terms of population: How many individuals could a rodent city hold without losing its collective mind?

The 1954 rodent utopia.

By 1954, he was working under the auspices of the National Institute of Mental Health, which gave him whole rooms to build his rodentopias. Some of these featured rats, while others focused on mice instead.

Universe 25 photograph with it's inventor. — Universe 25 photograph with it’s inventor.

Like a rodent real estate developer, he incorporated ever-better amenities: climbable walls, food hoppers that could serve two dozen customers at once, lodging he described as “walk-up one-room apartments.”

A Video records of his experiments show Calhoun with a pleased smile and a pipe in his mouth, color-coded mice scurrying over his boots.

Still, at a certain point, each of these paradises collapsed.

“There could be no escape from the behavioral consequences of rising  population density,” 

-Calhoun wrote in an early paper.

The story of the 1968 “Universe 25” collapse.

It was a pattern that would not collapse. No matter how hard he tried. The final test confirmed this. Universe 25—the biggest, best mousetopia of all, built after a quarter century of research—failed to break this pattern.

In July 1968 four pairs of mice were introduced into the Utopian universe. The universe was a 9-foot (2.7 m) square metal pen with 54-inch-high (1.4 m) sides. Each side had four groups of four vertical, wire mesh "tunnels". The "tunnels" gave access to nesting boxes, food hoppers, and water dispensers. There was no shortage of food or water or nesting material. There were no predators. The only adversity was the limit on space.

Initially the population grew rapidly, doubling every 55 days. The population reached 620 by day 315, after which the population growth dropped markedly. The last surviving birth was on day 600. This period between day 315 and day 600 saw a breakdown in social structure and in normal social behavior. Among the aberrations in behavior were the following:

- expulsion of young before weaning was complete,
- wounding of young,
- inability of dominant males to maintain the defense of their territory and females,
- aggressive behavior of females,
- passivity of non-dominant males with increased attacks on each other which were not defended against.

After day 600, the social breakdown continued and the population declined toward extinction. During this period females ceased to reproduce. Their male counterparts withdrew completely, never engaging in courtship or fighting. They ate, drank, slept, and groomed themselves – all solitary pursuits. Sleek, healthy coats and an absence of scars characterized these males. They were named "the beautiful ones".

- Description in Wikipedia [2014.05.25]

In late October, the first litter of mouse pups was born.

After that, the population doubled every two months—20 mice, then 40, then 80. The babies grew up and had babies of their own. Families became dynasties, carving out and holding down the best in-cage real estate.

By August of 1969, the population numbered 620.

Then, as always, things took a turn. Such rapid growth put too much pressure on the mouse way of life.

As new generations reached adulthood, many couldn’t find mates, or places in the social order—the mouse equivalent of a spouse and a job. Spinster females retreated to high-up nesting boxes, where they lived alone, far from the family neighborhoods. Washed-up males gathered in the center of the Universe, near the food, where they fretted, languished, and attacked each other. Meanwhile, overextended mouse moms and dads began moving nests constantly to avoid their unsavory neighbors. They also took their stress out on their babies, kicking them out of the nest too early, or even losing them during moves.

Urban rats started to behave strangely and took on unusual behaviors.

Population growth slowed way down again. Most of the adolescent mice retreated even further from societal expectations, spending all their time eating, drinking, sleeping and grooming, and refusing to fight or to even attempt to mate.

These individuals were forever  changed—when Calhoun’s colleague attempted to transplant some of them to  more normal situations, they didn’t remember how to do anything.

In May of 1970, just under 2 years into the study, the last baby was born, and the population entered a swan dive of perpetual senescence. It’s unclear exactly when the last resident of Universe 25 perished, but it was probably sometime in 1973.

Paradise couldn’t even last half a decade.

The periods or cycles…

In a unique experiment that took years to complete, Doctor Calhoun used white mice to study population growth and its effects on individual behavior.

In this sixteen cell mouse habitat, utopian conditions of nutrition, comfort and housing were provided for the potential population of over three thousand mice. […] Factors which normally control population growth such as predation by owls and cats were eliminated. Transmissible disease were also reduced. In effect, the mouse universe simulated the present situation of the continually expanding population of humans.

To see how Dr Calhoun’s mouse universe grew, we use the population graph.

Population rise and fall within the Universe 25 test area.

Phase A – The phase of social adjustment (strive period)

Within the first one hundred days, the mice went through the period Dr Calhoun called, “strive”. This was the period of adjustment. Territories were established and nests were made.

(1) Considerable social turmoil among the 8 mice until they became adjusted to each other and to their expanded surroundings.
(2) Territories were established and nests were made.

Phase B – The phase of most rapid growth (exploit period)

The next period lasted about two hundred and fifty days. The population of the mice doubled every sixty days. This was called the “exploit” period. The use of resources become unequal. Although each living unit was identical in structure and opportunities, more food and water was consumed in some areas.

The population of the mice doubled every sixty days. This was called the "exploit" period. The use of resources become unequal. — The population of the mice doubled every sixty days. This was called the “exploit” period. The use of resources become unequal.

As the population increased, most mice associated eating and drinking with the presence of others. And crowding developed in certain units.

(1) Population doubling time is about 55 days
(1) Social organization established – frequency of litters proportional to social dominance
(1) The births tended to be concentrated in some sets of nest boxes (dominant males), while others (non-dominant males – withdrawn males = WM) had few or none.
(2) Although each living unit was identical in structure and opportunities, more food and water was consumed in certain areas. As the population increased, most mice associated eating and drinking with the presence of others. And crowding developed in certain units.
(1) At the end of this phase there were 3 times as many socially immature mice as there were socially established older ones.

Phase C – The stagnation phase (equilibrium period)

The third period, consisting of three hundred days, found the population of mice leveling off. This was called the “equilibrium” period. Dr Calhoun noticed that the newer generations of young were inhibited, since most space was already socially defined.

At this time, some unusual behavior become noticeable.

Violence become prevalent. Excess males strived for acceptance, were rejected and withdrew. Huddling together, they would exhibit brief flurries of violence amongst themselves. The effects of violence became increasingly visible.

Certain individuals became targets of repeated attacks. These individuals would have badly chewed and scarred tails.

But the trajectory of rat utopia soon sobered Calhoun. The eager rodents  did not seem capable of regulating their population size in the  long-term. As they reproduced and the pens overflowed, Calhoun noted  that male rates became aggressive, moving in gangs and attacking females  and young. Some became exclusively homosexual. Female rats, meanwhile,  abandoned their infants. The crowded mice had lost the ability to  coexist. One of Calhoun’s assistants renamed the “rat utopia”  “rodent  hell.” 

-Space Cadets and Rat Utopias

Other young mice growing into adulthood exhibited an even different type of behavior. Dr Calhoun called these individuals “the beautiful ones”. Their time was devoted solely to grooming, eating and sleeping. They never involved themselves with others, engaged in sex, nor would they fight. All appeared as a beautiful exhibit of the species with keen, alert eyes and a healthy well-kept body. These mice, however, could not cope with unusual stimuli.

Though they looked inquisitive they were, in fact, very stupid.

All of this, however, led to a drop in mating, and the birthrate soon fell to a third of its former level. A social imbalance also took place among the mice:

One-third emerged as socially dominant.
The other two-thirds turned out less socially adept than their forbearers.
As bonding skills diminished among the mice, Universe 25 went into a slow but irreversible decline.

By Day 315, behavior disparities between males of high and low status became more pronounced. Those at the bottom of the pecking order found themselves spurned from females and withdrew from mating altogether. Having no roles to fulfill within the society of mice, these outcast males wandered apart from the larger groups to eat and sleep alone — and sometimes fight among one another.

The alpha males, by contrast, became more aggressive and pugnacious, often launching into violence with no clear provocation or motive. At times, these males would roam around and indiscriminately rape other mice, regardless of gender.

Meanwhile, the beta males — those ranked between the aggressive alphas and outcast omegas — grew timid and inert, and often wound up being the passive recipients of violence. In several instances, bloodbaths ended with a cannibalistic feast for the victors.

(1) Population doubling time is about 145 days
(1) The male ability to defend territory declines
(1) The nursing females become aggressive, essentially taking over the role of the territorial males. This aggression generalized to their own young who were attacked, wounded, and forced to leave home several days before normal weaning.
(2) At this time, some unusual behavior became noticeable. Violence became prevalent. Excess males strived for acceptance, were rejected and withdrew. Social disorder became visible – a WM would attack a passive WM, who in turn would attack another WM. Certain individuals became targets of repeated attacks. These individuals would have badly chewed and scarred tails.
(4) Socially withdrawn male 29 makes a pan-sexual approach to male 16 who he recently saw attacked. Note how one assumes the female role. Males exhibit sexual behavior towards other males; you have rat homosexuality. They begin mounting the young.
(1) Incidence of conception decline and resorption of fetuses increases and dissolution of maternal behavior is observed. This lead to non-reproducing females.
(1) By midway in phase C, essentially all young were prematurely rejected by their mothers. They started independent life without having developed adequate effective bonds.
(1) Considering that there were 256 nest retreat sites in the 16 cells, one would not expect shelter to be a limiting factor until the population exceeded 3840. Due to the tendency of many animals to choose to crowd together in numbers in excess of 15 per nest site, at the peak population size of 2200 mice, 20% of all nest sites were usually unoccupied. Thus, there were always opportunities for females to select an unoccupied space for rearing young if they so chose.
(1) Social disorder – a WM would attack a passive WM, who in turn would attack another

Phase D – The death phase (die period)

With male mice abandoning their traditional roles in Universe 25, the females were left to fend for their nests. Consequently, many females adopted more aggressive forms of behavior, which would sometimes spill over into violence toward their young.

Others would refrain from motherly duties altogether, banishing their unraised litters and withdrawing from further mating, resulting in serious consequences:

In some compartments, the infant mortality rate topped 90 percent.
Calhoun named this the “stagnation phase,” alternately known as the “equilibrium period.”
He attributed the overly aggressive and passive behavioral patterns to the breakdown of social roles and rampant over-clustering.

Dr Calhoun called the last period the “die” phase, leading the population into extinction. Although the mouse utopia could house 3000, the population began to decline at 2200.

By the 560th day, the population increase had ceased altogether as the mortality rate hovered at 100 percent. This marked the start of the “death phase” — aka the “die period” — in which the rodent utopia slid toward extinction. Amidst the violence, hostility and lack of mating, a younger generation of mice reached maturity, having never been exposed to examples of normal, healthy relations. With no concept of mating, parenting or marking territory, this generation of mice spent all of their waking hours eating, drinking and grooming themselves.

In reference to their perfected, unruffled appearances, Calhoun called these mice the “beautiful ones.” Living in seclusion from the other mice, they were spared the violence and conflict that waged in the crowded areas, yet made no social contributions.

According to Calhoun, the death phase consisted of two stages: the “first death” and “second death.” The former was characterized by the loss of purpose in life beyond mere existence — no desire to mate, raise young or establish a role within society. This first death was represented by the lackadaisical lives of the beautiful ones, whereas the second death was marked by the literal end of life and the extinction of Universe 25.

(1) Population increase abruptly ceased on day 560 after colonization.
(1) Incidence of pregnancies decline very rapidly with no young surviving.
(1) The last conception took place about day 920
(1) Male counterparts to non-reproducing females were named the “beautiful ones”. They never engaged in sexual approaches toward females, and they never engaged in fighting. Their behavioral repertoire became largely confined to eating, drinking, sleeping and grooming.
(1) The capacity for reproduction terminated.
(3) The last thousand animals born never learned to develop the social behaviors, they never learned to be aggressive, which is necessary in defense of home sites; not engaging in any stressful activity, and only paying attention to themselves, they groomed themselves well so they looked like very fine specimens.
(2) Other young mice growing into adulthood exhibited an even different type of behaviour. Dr Calhoun called these individuals “the beautiful ones”. Their time was devoted solely to grooming, eating and sleeping. They never involved themselves with others, engaged in sex, nor would they fight. All appeared as a beautiful exhibit of the species with keen, alert eyes and a healthy well-kept body. These mice, however, could not cope with unusual stimuli. Though they looked inquisitive they were, in fact, very stupid.

In the shift from the equilibrium to the die phase, each animal became less aware of associates, despite all animals being pushed closer together. Dr Calhoun concluded that the mice could not effectively deal with the repeated contact of so many individuals. The evidence of violence increased to the point where most individuals had had their tails bitten to some degree.

Gradually, the mice that refused to mate or engage in society came to outnumber those that formed gangs, raped and plundered, and fed off their own. The last known conception in Universe 25 occurred on Day 920, at which point the population was capped at 2,200, well short of the enclosure’s 3,000 capacity.

An endless supply of food, water and other resources were still there for the mice, but it didn’t matter. The behavior sink had set in, and there was no stopping Universe 25 from careening to its self-made demise. Soon enough, there was not a single living mouse left in the enclosure..

The results of the study were published.

Calhoun saw in his rats the decline of future society, evidence that  inner city crowding led to rioting, crime, malaise, and political  radicalism: the obsessions of postwar American academics. He wrote up  his results in a Scientific American article that he titled  “Population Density and Social Pathology.” The article became one of the  most widely-cited papers in psychology. Like Pavlov’s dogs and  Skinner’s pigeons, Calhoun’s rats became exemplars for human behavior.  His experiments suggested a density beyond which rat society  disintegrated, and—to Calhoun and his colleagues, at least—the parallels  with human society were clear. 

- Space Cadets and Rat Utopias

In 1973, Calhoun published his Universe 25 research as “Death Squared: The Explosive Growth and Demise of a Mouse Population.” It is, to put it lightly, an intense academic reading experience.

He quotes liberally from the Book of Revelation, italicizing certain words for emphasis (e.g. “to kill with the sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts”).

He gave his claimed discoveries catchy names—the mice who forgot how to mate were “the beautiful ones”’ rats who crowded around water bottles were “social drinkers”; the overall societal breakdown was the “behavioral sink.” In other words, it was exactly the kind of diction you’d expect from someone who spent his entire life perfecting the art of the mouse dystopia.

Most frightening are the parallels he draws between rodent and human society. “I shall largely speak of mice,” he begins, “but my thoughts are on man.”

Both species, he explains, are vulnerable to two types of death—that of the spirit and that of the body. Even though he had removed physical threats, doing so had forced the residents of Universe 25 into a spiritually unhealthy situation, full of crowding, over-stimulation, and contact with various mouse strangers.

To a society experiencing the rapid growth of cities—and reacting, in various ways, quite poorly—this story seemed familiar.

Senators brought it up in meetings. It showed up in science fiction and comic books. Even Tom Wolfe, never lost for description, used Calhounian terms to describe New York City, calling all of Gotham a “behavioral sink.”

Calhoun in 1986, nearly forty years after his first experiments. Photo: Cat Calhoun/CC BY-SA 3.0. — *Calhoun in 1986, nearly forty years after his first experiments. Photo: Cat Calhoun/CC BY-SA 3.0*.

Trying to discover solutions.

Convinced that he had found a real problem, Calhoun quickly began using his mouse models to try and fix it.

If mice and humans weren’t afforded enough physical space, he thought, perhaps they could make up for it with conceptual space—creativity, artistry, and the type of community not built around social hierarchies.

His later Universes were designed to be spiritually as well as physically utopic, with rodent interactions carefully controlled to maximize happiness (he was particularly fascinated by some early rats who had created an innovative form of tunneling, where they rolled dirt into balls).

He extrapolated this, too, to human concerns, becoming an early supporter of environmental design and H.G. Wells’s hypothetical “World Brain,” an international information network that was a clear precursor to the internet.

Failed Salvage Attempt and Concluding Observations

Before the rodent utopia imploded entirely, Calhoun removed some of the beautiful ones to see whether they would live more productive lives if released into a new society, free of social strife and carnage.

Placing these mice in a fresh setting with few pre-existing residents — a scenario similar to that which greeted the initial pairs placed in Universe 25 — he expected the beautiful ones to awake from their asocial haze and answer nature’s call to populate the barren environment.

The colonization of Mars, a possible solution to extinction does not work according to experiments.

However, the relocated mice showed no signs of change from their earlier behavioral patterns. Refusing to mate or even interact among their new peers, the reclusive mice eventually died of natural causes, and the fledgling society folded without a single new birth.

In Calhoun’s view, the rise and fall of Universe 25 proved five basic points about mice, as well as humans:

The mouse is a simple creature, but it must develop the skills for courtship, child-rearing, territorial defense and personal role fulfillment on the domestic and communal front. If such skills fail to develop, the individual will neither reproduce nor find a productive role within society.
As with mice, all species will grow older and gradually die out. There is nothing to suggest human society isn’t prone to the same developments that led to the demise of Universe 25.
If the number of qualified individuals exceeds the number of openings in society, chaos and alienation will be the inevitable outcomes.
Individuals raised under the latter conditions will lack any relation to the real world. Physiological fulfillment will be their only drive in life.
Just as mice thrive on a set of complex behaviors, the concern for others developed in post-industrial human skills and understandings is vital to man’s continuance as a species. The loss of these attributes within a civilization could lead to its collapse.

The public reaction.

But the public held on hard to his earlier work—as Ramsden and Adams put it, “everyone want[ed] to hear the diagnosis, no one want[ed] to hear the cure.”

Gradually, Calhoun lost attention, standing, and funding.

In 1986, he was forced to retire from the National Institute of Mental Health. Nine years later, he died.

His influence

There was one person who paid attention to his more optimistic experiments, a writer named Robert C. O’Brien.

In the late ’60s, O’Brien allegedly visited Calhoun’s lab, met the man trying to build a true and creative rodent paradise, and took note of the Frisbee on the door, the scientists’ own attempt “to help when things got too stressful,” as Calhoun put it.

Soon after, O’Brien wrote Ms. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH—a story about rats who, having escaped from a lab full of blundering humans, attempt to build their own utopia.

Next time, maybe we should put the rats in charge.

My story.

I knew about this study from the 1970’s when I was a boy. My father had a “Year in Review” series of books that accompanied the Encyclopedia Britannia collection that he had acquired in the 1960’s. These volumes would come to our door, and would be jam-packed with information and trivia of the year previous.

I would sit on the Lazy-boy chair and go through these big massive volumes and read the articles there. As such, I too, was influenced by this study.

I even brought it up for discussion in my classroom. But no one cared. They were too interested with “Johnathan Livingston Seagull” and the television cartoon special about a boy and his dog (which brought forth the hit song “Me and my arrow“.) The rest of my classmates were too worried about Climate Cooling and the coming great freeze to worry about the implications of this study.

Years passed.

Then I read an article that rewoke this narrative.

The Article that re-woke and rekindled my interest in this study.

Then I read this article titled “Article – The Doomed Mouse Utopia That Inspired the ‘Rats of NIMH’” which was posted on January 8, 2020.

The author comments…

Give a buncha rodents all the food, bedding, water, and stress-free
living you can give them and they should breed like..well..rats. And have a population boom, right? Maybe not.

Such  rapid growth put too much pressure on the mouse way of life. As new  generations reached adulthood, many couldn’t find mates, or places in  the social order—the mouse equivalent of a spouse and a job. Spinster females retreated to high-up nesting boxes, where they lived alone, far from the family neighborhoods. Washed-up males gathered in the center of the Universe, near the food, where they fretted, languished, and  attacked each other. Meanwhile, overextended mouse moms and dads began moving nests constantly to avoid their unsavory neighbors. They also took their stress out on their babies, kicking them out of the nest too early, or even losing them during moves.

Some fascinating parallels to be had in just that one paragraph. 

To  quote Judge Dredd “You put that many rats in one cage and something’s  gonna happen.” 

The apparent message is that mammals ain’t cut out for  being put into large metropolises. Even when you give them all the welfare food and shelter they want, they’ll still go bad.

But, men are not rodents. 

Yet look at any major city and you’ll see  that the segments of the population that have everything handed to them  seem to be the most troubled and troublesome.

Moral of the story? 

Stay out of enormous cities. 

Having just returned from a week in one of the biggest i can tell you with utter sincerity that nothing reinvigorated my mind and spirit more than being able to have room to stretch both physically and metaphorically. Away from the restricting confines of mandatory recycling, absurd gun laws, high sales  taxes, etc, I felt I could breathe easier again and feel in control of  my life.

Big cities, in my experience, are superior in providing only three  things: money, women, and food. High paying jobs, endless varieties of  women, and a dizzying array of types of food…

...that's about all I can  recommend for the big cities. 

But what do I get out of smaller venues,  such as where I live? Relatively high levels of freedom, or, at least,  qualities that I equate with freedom.

Men or mice…put too many in one place and bad stuff happens. Don’t be there.

Conclusions by “experts”

All conclusions drawn by socialist (& state) scientists constantly connect extinction with overpopulation:

The conclusions drawn from this experiment were that when all available space is taken and all social roles filled, competition and the stresses experienced by the individuals will result in a total breakdown in complex social behaviors, ultimately resulting in the demise of the population.
 
- Wikipedia 2014.05.25

Overpopulation = Extinction

However in the Calhoun’s papers there are clear evidences that this is not so:

All of the available space was not taken, and there was areas devoid of rodents.
WM (Withdrawn Males) had no social roles so they withdrew from society. Thus they could not be counted as part of the overpopulation burden.

John Calhoun conclusions

The demise of a population contradicts prior knowledge which indicates that when a population declines to a few remnant groups, some individuals will reinitiate its growth.

This study disproves the idea that growth can be resumed once society collapses.

Dr. Halsey Marsden (1972) placed some mice from the mid-third of phase D into new universes at very low densities. All exhibited nearly total loss of capacity for developing a structured society or for engaging in the full repertoire of reproductive behaviors.

The idea that individuals can flee an overpopulated environment and start all over again and rebuild from scratch is false. Once society collapses it is over.

For an animal so simple as a mouse, the most complex behaviors involve the interrelated set of courtship, maternal care, territorial defense and hierarchical intragroup and intergroup social organization. When behaviors related to these functions fail to mature, there is no development of social organization and no reproduction. As in the case of my study reported above, all members or the population will age and eventually die. The species will die out. For an animal so complex as man, there is no logical reason why a comparable sequence of events should not also lead to species extinction.

For mice, society can simply stop reproducing and then die out.

For men, society can introduce dangerous technologies (WMD, robots, nuclear weapons, etc) and die out catastrophically.

If opportunities for role fulfillment fall far short of the demand by those capable of filling roles, and having expectations to do so, only violence and disruption of social organization can follow.

As the roles in society disappear, as the lines between gender and society disappear, social disruption WILL follow.

Individuals born under these circumstances will be so out of touch with reality as to be incapable even of alienation. Their most complex behaviors will become fragmented.

Acquisition, creation and utilization of ideas appropriate for life in a post-industrial cultural-conceptual-technological society will have been blocked.

Just as biological generativity in the mouse involves this species’ most complex behaviors, so does ideational generativity for man. Loss of these respective complex behaviors means death of the species.

John Calhoun’s collaborator’s conclusions

The larger the population, the less care a mother gives to her nest and young. This creates social unrest which will eventually result in the collapse of the society.

Non-academic conclusions

The principal factor is the lack of social education in the young.

This is due to the abundance of food and water and lack of predators.

They do not learn important skills.

The mechanism at work is there was no need to perform any actions to acquire resources and/or avoid danger. This creates a “soft” and “weak” rodent. The “strong” and “capable” rodents die out.

So the young have no opportunity to learn from the strong rodents. They learn from the weak rodents.

When confronted with danger, they do not know how to handle it. And many lose their lives.

A utopia is when one has everything, at any moment, for no expenditure.

But, utopia declines responsibility, effectiveness and awareness of social dependence.

This atrophying of these important factors, leads to self-extinction.

Contrarily, difficult conditions instigate better coping mechanisms for  the population, leading to its growth, strengthening and reinforcement.  [See S-nastu hypothesis i supercompensation]

Some wordy introspection…

Perhaps it is the creation of social constructs that cause this demise. The idea that there are “leaders” that mass groups of people follow, and trends, that mass groups of people follow, and “laws” that mass groups of people follow…

… instead of the individual that follows their own moral compass.

So we know that Resources, in every quantified sense – was never a problem.

There must be something we’ve either overlooked, or underlooked. Perhaps how we’ve managed the potentials of ourselves, as factors of “ignorance”. One clue we could “start” looking “from”, would be our prior history, wouldn’t it? Can we perhaps then, take a trip back to memory lane?

Interestingly, no other point of civilization since dawn of human first invention as ideological to then instrumental; have advanced us so quickly in a space of no more than few hundred years. The invention of “money” (instrument of exchange) then the banking system, and Marketing. From Abacus, then to light bulbs and automobiles. The Internet then the Blockchain. From willow tree bark to then Aspirin, and low-dose naltrexones.

An impressive advance for mankind, indeed. However beneath all this pursuit; we continued to DIVERT such a Progress to something else far more destructive. Effectively reversing our meaningful reconciling on the “why’s” behind all this pursuit in the first place.

...

What I genuinely fear; is that we are inching closer towards a global state of “stand-still”. So precarious if this were to continue it’d be likely petrifying.

That “stand-still” point I refer to is similar to the critique aimed against Calhoun’s Behavioural Sink. That is – Oblivious Irrationality. We know that, as hypothesized in part one – it was the excessive, totalitarian attempt for universal in-clusivity that contributes much to the mice’s declines. Leading to losses of individual liberties at reclaiming what is Authentically simply that – “individual”, peaceful, content in its own homeostasis.

Yet – if we were to translate this to our state of our present pedestrian normalcy – it is anything but peaceful nor quaint. Political myopism; aka. 1984 – is likely brewing to ever more increasingly heights of “reality”.

Why is this so? I can only speculate that once again – it is due to (helpless) totalitarian attempt for in-clusivity of all pedestrian “norms”. For structural “correctness”. First stemming as ideological concepts like “Religion” and/or “Faith”. Then structurally enforced as “Laws” and “Institutionalisations”.

Religion then instills us the comforting, human benevolence through warm, cosy and “emotive” doctrine(s) – of Monogamy and (infinite) servitude of Charity.

Yet little do we know, all this is a pursuit away from transcending ourselves. But instead to everyone else’s collectivism towards totalitarian in-clusivity. In other words, Totalitarian objectivity, in place of all Subjective Authenticities.

...

Following from this, we must remove all Human titles of “Politicians”. These hierarchical structure of decision-making must inevitably erode. As the efficacy of technology replaces human cognitive ability at “management” – “Politicians” absolutely have NO place in the rungs of every management of all genetically diverse human needs, and eccentric pursuits.

Considering we now have entire country (or as several “states”) today; overruled by elitism of (1) entity alone. Entities whom we decoratively label as “Rulers”, “Prime Ministers” or “Presidents”. Then orchestrated collectively through correctional “Institution/s”; to decide and thus make every Structural Impositions.

Such paradigm is unthinkably limited and unempathetic to individual, anecdotal crisis. People will always look forth to overthrow kings and queens. Especially given that individual human variabilities grow exponentially incomprehensible when judged or treated as collective whole numbers.

...

Hence, today’s archaic “Correctness Hierarchy” as our present, Institutionalized definition of Science today once again, must be eradicated. And there is one more realm connected to this that must also be strongly scrutinized.

-Nutritional humanity

My Conclusions

Catastrophic extinction (phase four events) is expected given conditions that suppresses natural behaviors.

Over-population is a symptom of the suppression of natural behaviors.

Before the extinction event occurs, there will be all sorts of odd actions, behaviors and dangers in crowded locations.

I would, for certain, avoid cities at all costs.

Human population is following the life-extinction graph. We cannot, and should not ignore it. Avoid cities, large groups of people, and charismatic leaders that control great swaths of the population.

MAJestic observation

Imagine that you are another species, from another environment. You are observing the humans as they exist in contemporaneous society. What would you think?

How could you benefit from this situation?
What advice would you give to a treasured individual from this society?

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Any conflict can be resolved if you throw enough snacks at it.

The Domain Commander can be a real hoot sometimes.

A follower asked me a personal question and so I comm’d with the Domain Commander. And as usual it made no sense to me.

I guess that the reception signal quality is emotionally influenced, as it was in a cheerful mood (I think – it’s really a difficult one to gauge) and he gave me a really confusing answer. But the follower understood it. Well, I didn’t don’t you know. Hard to listen in on phone conversations when they speak a different language. *sheech*

Here’s a snippet what the DC said.

Quick note. Weird is GOOD. It means that you are one foot in the "hologram of reality" and one foot in the "actual". So yeah, it'll be a weird world.

Comm with the DC, for you;

Your pre-birth world-line template (The DC does not like this term, but it resonates with us humans... but I get a scoffaw every time I use it) was (like many others) layered. Like onion peals and movement on the Z-axis moves one life cycle to another one like a slide is already easy for you (and your ilk) because you have built in slides.

A number of the templates (again a scoff) [actually, i will need to revise the model to something more acceptable to the DC, well, do that later . its on my agenda.] have a pre-programmed earlier than expected exit. from this reality. You already missed the exit "doors" slides (if you want to call them that) on the highest probabilities due to some of your affirmations. I should say "good work", but you have some interesting times up a head of you. Not bad. just extreme (Domain Commander words, not mine)

DC emphasis is on "not bad", but extreme in the realm of weird life experience. I would translate that as "roller coaster", but DC says not so. Instead more "crunchy" and more "abrasive", with better "fun stuff".

Like I said, comm with the Domain Commander can be a trip some time. I hope this makes sense to you. It is garbage to me. I don't know what the fuck its talking about. (DC *smirk*, chuckles, head nod, and fade out.)

Ah I don’t think that the follower will get too upset of the public display of this section of his comm.

Comms always take a lot out of me., but I think that you all can understand a little bit about the nature of the Domain from this interaction.

Have a good one. Today…

Today’s post on YouTube by MM

It’s a “short”; under 1 minute.

OP-ED: Iran Conflict Showed the Collapse of American “Protection”

Hal Turner World March 12, 2026

The Iran Conflict has exposed the collapse of American “protection.”

In less than one hour after being hit by the US and Israel, Iran responded with surgical precision, striking 17 American installations across the Middle East.

Successive waves of missiles and drones forced US troops to abandon their bases and scramble for shelter in luxury hotels, which, ironically, quickly became targets themselves.

It has now been 12 straight days of continuous bombardment, with multiple waves every single day and no sign of fatigue.

The strikes are not limited to the bases: they are hammering roads, airports, ports, hotels, and power plants.

Evacuation orders exist on paper, but they are being carried out at a snail’s pace, because security is nonexistent and far too many troops are still trapped under fire.

Almost no one remains at the American bases anymore. Even the refueling aircraft that operated out of Saudi Arabia have been pulled out and relocated to Germany.

The message to the Gulf countries is crystal clear: the US cannot even protect its own bases. You’re on your own.

The sense of invincibility that lasted for decades has been shattered.

Critical radars destroyed, interceptors running on fumes, bases bombed, Iranian missiles still launching, the Strait of Hormuz still closed, and Gulf allies left completely exposed.

All of this is being watched in real time by Asian countries that, until yesterday, were betting everything on American power to contain China.

The red light is flashing bright.

If the US couldn’t defend the Gulf against Iran… what real chance do they have of protecting anyone against Beijing?

Up until February 28, American protection felt absolute. Today it feels like something else entirely.

The collapse of that decades-long myth of absolute security is the deepest and most lasting indirect effect of this war.

BY:

Patricia Marins

Did Ancient Chinese warriors primarily use weapons other than swords? If so, what was the reason for this preference?

Li Shimin, the founder of the Tang Empire, was not only a genius military strategist but also an outstanding warrior who personally charged into battle.

Historical records note that in one cavalry campaign, five of his warhorses were killed under him, and each time he immediately mounted another horse and fought on.

Mao Zedong greatly admired Li Shimin’s military genius, once remarking, “Since ancient times, none who understood the art of war have surpassed Li Shimin.”

At that time, the standard weapon of ordinary Tang soldiers was the long-handled great saber.

Cavalry, on the other hand, wielded massive lances.

Yet Li Shimin himself declared that the most fearsome weapon was the hammer.

His view may well have been shared by many military experts of the era.

In a historical romance novel set in the Tang dynasty, many of the top warriors were portrayed as wielding hammers.

(This picture, along with countless similar comic-book illustrations, misled me in childhood—I could not fathom how ancient warriors fought with iron hammers weighing hundreds of kilograms.)

(This, in fact, is what a real iron hammer looked like.)

But to be honest, I don’t quite understand why Li Shimin considered the hammer more terrifying than the modao (long-handled saber) or the cavalry lance.

I once bought a Ming dynasty sword, as well as a heavily rusted Song dynasty iron hammer (such so-called “relics” are quite common in China, hence not expensive).

From my impression, the hammer was overly heavy and too short, and in real combat would have been completely countered by a cavalry lance or a long-handled saber.

Still, I respect Li Shimin’s opinion.

What are the best foods to try during a Kolkata trip?

I haven’t been to Kolkata for almost 7–8 years so pls excuse me if many outlets have been closed

Breakfast :-

Loochi, Alu Bhaja / Alur Dom – Try a Small Eatery or even a Roadside Eatery who will serve you 4–5 Small white pooris with a Katori of Potato Sabji either with gravy or a very miniature version of French fries
Kochuri – Kachori known as Kochuri is a pretty famous breakfast dish with a Potato Gravy or a Dal Gravy.
South Indian – Many South Indian Joints with Idli, Dosa, Pongal, Vada are available. Try Ghee Roast Dosa at Jyoti Vihar in Ho Chi Minh Sarani
Ruti-Dim – Egg and Bread. Thick Bread with Butter and Egg Omelette. Roadside Eateries but extremely tasty.

Note:- I traveled with my wife so ate only in South Indian Restaurants myself. The Roadside taste being great is based on when I lived in Kolkata back from 1993–1996 and regularly had Roadside food.

Lunch

India Coffee House – Bread Butter, Mutton Or Chicken Cutlet, Rose Milk (Avoid the Coffee😆, it is terrible)
6 Ballygunge Place – Bengali Meal (Bhaat (Rice), Luchi, Aloo Dom, Shukto, Dal, Begooni/Potol/Aloo Bhaja, Fish Fry, Murgir Jhol (Chicken curry), Mishti, Mishti Doi (Sweet Curd) – * Bit Expensive
Peter Cat – Western / Mediterranean – Lasagna, Au Gratin, Garlic Bread, Kebabs (They have a speciality Kebab they recommend but I didn’t like it much) (Park St I think)
Chinese Food at Gol Park – Gol Park has fantastic food with Chilly Chicken and Chicken Momos and Fried Rice
Fish Roll – Forgot the name of the place. Potato and Cheese stuffed fried fish roll. Very popular place in Goariahat
Chinese Place next to a Womens College in Goriahat. Extremely tasty and Northern Chinese Cuisine. I forgot the name.
Paratha – Stuffed Parathas with Paneer, Kheema, Moghalai Paratha also near Goriahat
Maach Bhaat Outlets – Numerous Small Eateries or even Roadside eateries that serve Bhaat (Rice), Macher Jhol (Fish Gravy with a piece of Fish or two pieces), Aloo Bhaja (Jhure Jhure), Potato Masala and Cholar Dal and Pickles. I ate in one place and it was excellent. No Ilish Fish though (Salmon)

Snacks :-

Poochka – Pani Pooris available in many places
Momo
Egg Rolls
Mouchak – Shingada, Radhawallabhi (Samosas and a Kind of Poori + Kachori combination)
KC Das – Kachori, Roshogulla

You have popular places like Barbeque Nation, Oh Calcutta, Peter Cat, Mocambo etc which are iconic institutions

However I PERSONALLY FEEL THEY ARE OVER RATED and food isnt as tasty

Kolkata is a huge place though and I am mainly covering the South (Jodhpur Park, Ballygunge, Goria, Goriahat, Gol Park) and Park Street area

Salt Lake is by itself a huge place with its own environment

Dumdum is another massive place

Topsia is a fast growing place as well

What’s a truth that people generally refuse to accept?

Let us start with a particularly brutal one, but I feel it deserves to be said…

Some people may be better off never being born.

It isn’t particularly noble to keep a child or adult alive that has no ability to speak, communicate, walk, work, create art or enjoy life. A person who cannot use a toilet, who cannot get dressed or wash without help and who is essentially an eternal infant, locked into his or her own body and forever trapped in a state of helpless and hopeless dependency.

There are some severely handicapped people born that really would be better off not existing in many cases. They hurt not only their long-suffering parents but their mere existence and the constant care they require often take a massive mental toll on their healthy siblings. I once read an interview with the siblings of a severely handicapped adult man who had frequent violent outbursts and who operated on the mental level of a gigantic hairy 2-year-old… both his brother and sister declared they were so scared of ever having a child like their brother that neither ever wanted to get married or have children of their own. Trauma will do that to a person.

When a doctor tells you the child in your womb is going to be born severely disabled with a greatly diminished quality of life and lifespan, please consider whether or not to bring this child into the world. Not just for your own sake and that of the child, but also for the sake of any healthy children you might already have — they will suffer. And not only the parents but even the siblings of such a child have to become caregivers for life. A cruel fate I would not wish on anyone.

MAGA Americans Are Giving Up From Insane Power Bill After Trump’s Tariffs

Sir Whiskerton and The Clucken’s Last Stand: A Tale of Poultry Pirates, Sock-Based Sovereignty, and the Great Corn Ceasefire

Ah, dear reader, batten down the hatches for a tale so gloriously absurd that even the scarecrow would demand a parrot on his shoulder! Today’s adventure begins with a missing sock, a chicken convinced he’s Blackbeard’s feathery reincarnation, and a war that ended faster than you can say “discount mutiny.” So hoist the Jolly Hen and join me for Sir Whiskerton and The Clucken’s Last Stand.

Act I: The Sock Heard ‘Round the Coop

Captain Cluckbeard (self-proclaimed “Terror of the Trough”) stood atop the feed bin, his one good eye gleaming with outrage.

“ARRRR!” he squawked, waving a corn cob cutlass. “That bilge-swillin’ farmer’s stolen me treasure AGAIN!”

His crew – Squawk the First Mate (who mostly napped) and Pluck the Powder Monkey (who mostly ate the gunpowder) – gasped on cue.

“What treasure, Cap’n?” asked Pluck, spitting out a feather.
“ME FAVORITE STRIPED SOCK, YE BLUBBERIN’ BUFFOON!”

(Note: The sock in question was currently being used as the farmer’s oven mitt.)

Act II: War is Clucked

What followed was the shortest naval engagement in farm history:

The Blockade: Cluckbeard’s crew “seized” the garden hose (declaring it the SS Cucumber).
The Battle Cry: “YER WALK THE PLANK… AFTER NAPTIME!”
The Farmer’s Response: Utter confusion, then a handful of thrown corn.

Squawk immediately folded like a lawn chair:

“WE ACCEPT YOUR TERMS!” he clucked, diving beak-first into the kernels.

Pluck, with corn stuck to his face: “Is this… tribute?”

Act III: The Treaty of the Sock Drawer

Sir Whiskerton, acting as Feline Ambassador, negotiated peace:

Cluckbeard got his sock back (now slightly burnt and smelling of cornbread).
The Farmer was declared “Honorary Landlubber” (a title he accepted while wearing mismatched socks).
Squawk got a lifetime supply of corn (or until dinner, whichever came first).

As the sun set, the pirates retired to their “ship” (a tipped-over wheelbarrow), singing sea shanties off-key. The sock flew proudly from the mast (a broomstick).

The Moral of the Story

Moral: Even the fiercest warriors can be bought with snacks and laundry.

Post-Credit Scene

The next morning, Cluckbeard declares war on the washing machine (“IT BE EATIN’ ME TROUSERS!”). The farmer responds with raisins. Another swift surrender.

Best Lines:

“I’ll keelhaul ye with ME BARE WATTLES!” – Cluckbeard’s worst threat
“Piracy’s hungry work.” – Squawk, with a mouth full of contraband corn
“This is why I don’t do laundry.” – Sir Whiskerton, watching the farmer wave a sock flag

Starring:

Captain Cluckbeard (Feathered Fury)
Squawk & Pluck (The World’s Worst Pirate Crew)
The Farmer (Unwilling Participant in Poultry Theater)
Sir Whiskerton (Diplomat of Last Resort)

Key Jokes:

Cluckbeard’s “treasure map” is just a muddy pawprint on napkin.
The “broadside” involves hurling melon rinds (one accidentally hits Pluck).
The farmer’s “naval defenses” consist of spraying the hose in random directions.

P.S.

Remember: Any conflict can be resolved if you throw enough snacks at it.

The End.

Yours barnacledly,
The Sir Whiskerton Team 🏴‍☠️

How much more advanced is the US Navy than the Chinese Navy? I know the Chinese have more ships, but I’ve heard that they are terrified of the US nuclear submarines. How does a US destroyer compare to a Chinese destroyer?

Question: How much more advanced is the US Navy than the Chinese Navy? I know the Chinese have more ships, but I’ve heard that they are terrified of the US nuclear submarines. How does a US destroyer compare to a Chinese destroyer?

Answer:

Most of the well learned individuals will roll their eyes at the nuclear submarine and nuclear weapon comment.

Basically, the key difference between China and US/USSR/Russia is that China’s official policy is to NOT state anything about their nuclear submarine and only tiny bits about their nuclear stockpile and delivery capacity.

Wheres in comparison, US/USSR/Russia regularly states their nuclear capacity and is quite willing to overstate things.

For example, last year on September 25th, 2024, China made a public test of DF-31AG. It is the longest actual ICBM test in human history and the Chinese missile flew the entire 12000km and hit the target zone (which China informed US and France three days in advance) with less than 100m of dispersion and Mach 30 terminal speed———exactly as China stated. The most important thing from this test is that DF-31AG’s test matched its stated spec word by word.

This is probably the hardest part for the English audience to swallow. Because they just cannot accept there are honest people in the world that don’t overstate their capacity or spec.

In fact, right after the DF-31AG test, US made multiple attempts of Minuteman III tests and despite a stated spec of 14,000km range, none of the test is past 7000km in reality.

And we have a repeat of this event this year, on May 7th, 2025, during the Pakistan-India air battle, despite Pakistan’s imported Chinese PL-15E has stated spec of 145km, multiple kills were made at 160km~180km range. And this is air-air missile hitting rapid moving targets.

Basically, anything the Chinese actually tells the public is guaranteed minimal specs.

Yes, I deliberately worded it this way because this is something that hurt the English audience the most. Because to them, arguments about “Chinese is pretending and overstating their ability” is the only thing they have left to cope with the reality.

Well, the Chinese is indeed (technically) hiding and lying, but they are doing it to reduce the state spec of their equipment and performance, instead of exaggerating them.

And this isn’t an even a PRC thing. The ancient Chinese does this as well. I have explained this before, this practice is common for ancient Chinese engineers and artisans, because they have a life time responsibility system, so it is better to under-state the spec to ensure their product pass imperial emissary’s random sampling tests. Failing such a test can potential result in execution and as well the result, minimal guarantee is preferred.

So coming back to the navy.

The Chinese government has never made any statement about how many submarines, nuclear or conventional, they have.

But the popular figure of 12 floating around the English web is obviously BS. Duh, the first Chinese nuclear submarine are detected around 1970s and for almost 40 years, submarines are the main Chinese sea deterrent against US navy.

And you thought they only made 12 of those in the past 50 years?

Similarly, the argument about how China only has 300 nuclear warheads were from a single paper done by a NGO called Federation of American Scientists back in late 2000s. And the original statement is that judging by the electricity generation figure, back in 1970, China probably had about 300 warheads.

The estimation is probably fairly accurate, since China detonated its first nuclear warhead in 1964, so only making about 300 of them by 1970 is totally reasonable.

On the other hand, if you think that’s still the figure in 2025, then that’s just plain gullibility.

The reality reason English audience only get told that China has 12 nuclear submarine is that if the public is informed that China probably has a bigger submarine fleet than US, then it makes the entire “stirring up trouble around Taiwan or South China Sea” policy of US stupid as hell.

Hey, been enjoying your posts. Would you consider writing something on the Sword of Goujian? Like who made it, how it was discovered, if it actually has something to do with Vietnamese? Thanks!

There is no mention in historical records of who forged Goujian’s Sword, as only the owner’s name was documented at that time, not the blacksmith’s.

During the Yue State period (when Goujian reigned), its territory roughly corresponds to present-day Zhejiang Province and southern Jiangsu Province. This sword was unearthed in what is now Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province—a location that served as the capital of the Yue State back then.

As for the claim that this sword has connections to Vietnam, it is purely nonsense. Some extreme Vietnamese nationalists today assert that all the “Baiyue” (Hundred Yue) regions belong to Vietnam’s historical territory. In fact, “Baiyue” literally means “hundreds of tribes called Yue,” while present-day Vietnam corresponds to the areas inhabited by the more southern branches of these Yue tribes, not the core regions of the Yue State associated with Goujian.

The names in red represent different “yue”“越”. In the western part of the map, in what is now Yunnan and Sichuan, China, there are many more “yue” “越”, but they are too small to be labeled.

You can see that Vietnam is in the extreme south.

Finger-Lickin’Fricassee

Ingredients

1 (3 pound) chicken
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup shortening
1 onion, sliced
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic
4 tablespoons ketchup
1 1/2 cups water
1 teaspoon Gebhardt Chili Powder
2 teaspoons salt
4 tablespoons raisins (optional)
8 ripe olives, chopped (optional)

Instructions

Cut chicken into serving pieces. Dip into flour, then brown in hot shortening.
Remove to a large pan.
Fry onion, green pepper and garlic until brown in remaining hot shortening.
Add ketchup, water and Gebhardt Chili Powder; boil for 5 minutes. Pour over chicken.
Salt, adding water as needed; cover, allow to simmer until chicken is tender; about 1 1/2 hours.
Add raisins and ripe olives 15 minutes before serving.

Husband Who Was Robbed In Divorce Wins Appeal On Heiress Wife’s £66 Million Fortune!

Wow. You would never believe this.

Cathyheimer

Written in response to: “Set your story after aliens have officially arrived on Earth.“

Scott Christenson

Cathy nudged up her Vint & York Adeline glasses as she studied the data on her screen. It was unmistakable. A signal.

Until that moment, Cathy had believed the future of the planet to was hopeless. Global warming, inequality, pollution, the mistreatment of animals–so many issues. And there was no way out. People were too driven by their own selfish desires.

But what if we received help from another race of intelligent beings? One that travelled the stars would know how to transform this planet into a truly sustainable ecosystem.

Following first contact protocol–each person at SETI kept it in a laminated binder on their desk–she alerted the US Air Force. A dozen F-16s were scrambled to protect the nation’s airspace.

The the other 98% of the earth’s surface area would have to fend for itself.

On The Hand of God, currently circling this system’s fourth planet, Booba leaned back in his chair and put all eight feet on the starship’s control panel. After the hard work of choosing which BlodChat reply to send to this planet—the AI had produced 27 different translations–he did the Bloderian equivalent of flipping a coin, and chose one randomly. Exhausted, he was ready to start another gaming session.

On the game menu, he selected a flamethrower and began poking his tentacles around corners, searching for two-legged pests to exterminate. Oh how he enjoyed first-bloderian-shooters. Perhaps it was the visceral thrill of blasting away at bipeds. He would try to get over his distate on the current assignment. Visualization was key. He would imagine them as normal creatures with shiny exoskeletons and multiple legs and tentacles.

Cathy, despite her gloomy views on the future of the planet, maintained a flowery disposition with people, one nurtured growing up in the beautiful pine covered foothills of Boulder Colorado. Far away from the ravages of the mining industry in the west and the blight of industrialization in the east.

She looked at the decoded alien message. The words were in English but they didn’t make any sense.

“There must be a coded message in this. The Taliban hid their messages into the pixels of jpeg photos,” she said to the large and growing team in SETI’s office.

Behind he loomed General Sputz. The military was now trying to muscle in on the action at SETI and capture the glory of first contact. “We need answers.” He looked around at everyone else. “No one slacks off until we get to the bottom of this.”

General Sputz grew up in Akron under the merciless eye of an abusive father. He lacked Cathy’s positive outlook. But he knew better than to blame his parents, so he blamed the toxic pollution in Ohio’s drinking water.

They both studied the message again:

Smoked like bacon

Feel our sound

All for taking

Lift your hands

Booba is your man

This friday night

Make my day

Cathy wondered why an alien race would communicate in meaningless nonsense.

Another man cleared his throat. Professor Hall, the linguist from Berkeley, spoke up. “78% of the radio transmissions from Earth that leave the solar system are music. This message looks like pop music, doesn’t it?”

Cathy groaned. “So…decades of SETI broadcasts sending earth’s knowledge to alien planets, was drowned out by Top 40 radio.”

“From the lyrics, I’d say the pop music of the 90s. Space travel has a time shift. If the aliens didn’t know anything else, they would think pop music was our main form of communication.”

“Sad,“ Cathy said. She was trying to stay composed while watching someone else uncover the mysteries of first contact. “What do you think it means?”

“His name is Booba, and he’s looking for a date Friday night.”

General Sputz was now staring at Cathy oddly. “Date night. You’re the best looking woman here. Are you willing to serve your country?”

“What do you mean by that?!” Cathy said incredulously.

“Save the world. Think about it?”

“I am a scientist,” she said, looking at this General in his polyester uniform with even greater disdain than before.

The next day, they sent the message they laboriously wrote together:

‘Thank you for paying homage to our 1990s pop music. We would like to invite you to meet our leader at the White House on Friday.’

The reply was quick. The voice of an alien was heard by earth for the first time.

“I’m meeting Madonna? And why did it take you so long to reply?” spoke the deep, resonant voice.

“Sorry, it took us time to understand the message. And we have a new leader now.”

“A new leader, let’s celebrate. You should throw a party for Booba on Friday.”

The ground began shaking, an earthquake. SETI’s office was close to the San Andreas, but it seemed like too much of a coincidence.

“Did you do something?” she asked Booba the alien.

He chuckled.

Cathy glanced at General Sputz. His face was ashen. He leaned over and whispered, “Tell him yes. We’ll throw him a party on Friday.”

On The Hand of God, Booba tinkered with the control panel while thinking about what he should wear to the party. The earthquake he triggered in Northern California had gotten their attention. He wanted make an even grander entrance on Friday.

Booba had studied their history and wanted to give Hiroshima a break this time around. They were treated so unfairly in the past.

“How about we nuke Antarctica as our opening act?” he said to his assistant Zagbed. “The tidal wave would be 100 meters tall.”

His assistant found it challenging to disagree with his boss, but he mumbled, “The way they party might be different than yours, boss.” Zagbed cowered, prepared to dart from any weapon discharge in his direction.

“Just because you don’t know how to loosen up, doesn’t mean they don’t,” Booba roared. He believed he and Zagbed had the sort of friendly employee-manager relationship in which one could be utterly frank without any hard feelings.

Zagbed inched for the door.

After the alien caused an earthquake in California, General Sputz knew things on earth would never be the same again. It was an alien feeling to no longer be in charge of the world’s most powerful military.

He wondered what type of party Booba might be expecting. This was out of his wheelhouse. He would need to rope in the Pentagon’s cultural diversity team.

Cathy, at first repulsed by the General’s suggestion that she should be Earth’s alien dating escort, now toyed with the idea. She remembered her childhood aspiration to improve the planet. And, what would it be like to be the first wife of an alien race? This could be a historic act affecting future generations. A sea change in the perceptions of extraterrestrial marriage.

She made up her mind. But first, she needed to know what Booba looked like.

Booba received a request for a photo on a private radio frequency. But sending selfies was not the Bloderian way. Most non-Bloderians had only a millisecond to look a Bloderian in the eyes before they were exterminated.

But due to the labor shortage, the bureaucrats back home insisted Booba not get trigger happy, and he didn’t want to spend another 100 years doing community service. So as a compromise, he asked the ship’s AI–trained on signals received in the 1990s– to make a recommendation. A deep fake photo based on David Hasselhoff, with “From, Booba” handwritten in red lipstick on it.

The next day, the first thing the General noticed was Cathy dressed much nicer than usual. She smiled at the General as if she knew something that he didn’t.

“I’ll speak to the alien first. Quiet everyone!” Cathy said. When there was silence in the command center, she switched on her microphone. “Good morning, Booba. We are all looking forward to meeting you Friday. We would be eternally grateful for any help you could give us with the pressing needs of our planet, such as CO2 emissions—”

The deep, powerful voice of the alien cleared his throat.

“Excuse me. We can cover the nitty-gritty…“ Booba said, “After we get to know each other better. First, we need to agree on your nation’s unconditional surrender, so there will be nothing to ruin the mood on Friday.”

Cathay blinked furiously a few times. “Unconditional surrender?” she said. “I’m going to have to pass you to the General.”

The phrase ‘the buck stops here’ went through the General’s mind, and then panic set in. If he surrendered, his name could be attached to the most shameful event in United States history. Last century’s word for a traitor was Benedict Arnold. Would ‘General Spitz’ be next century’s eponym for being a shameful disgrace?

Sputz picked up the microphone. “We are prepared to…cooperate.”

“Cooperate, means surrender?”

“We will do what you want from us.”

“Unconditionally?”

General Sputz thought of something intelligent to say at this historical moment. Such as Douglas Armstrong’s famous quote from the moon. He thought some more, and then simply said, “We’ll try our best.”

Booba wondered why this man kept talking in circles. He was fairly certain he used the right words. Perhaps some things just don’t translate. It didn’t matter. The big decisions had already been made.

“Let’s move on. Surrender, Cooperate. It’s all the same to us.”

Bloderians had their own protocol to follow when conquering alien planets. He pulled up his 13-pages of notes and began going through the bullet points.

Cathy listened to Booba rattle off details about which documents needed to be signed by whom. The right order to shake all eight hands of the conquering General. How they would go about transferring the national savings to the Central Bank of Bloderia. Booba was speaking so fast, it was obvious, he was just trying to get this over with.

There was a pause, and then Booba said, “And, to make it all easier, you’ll soon be getting help from Bangladesh. We have been training their civil service in implementing our Bloderian regulations.”

“Implementing?”

“You know, collecting taxes, calculating the correct minutes of the day to show homage to the Bloderian Gods, enforcing the 29-day work week, special benefits for the 8-legged population, stuff like that…”

“A 29-day work week? Bangladesh is ok with this?”

“The first class of trainees finished our 3-year civil servant training program. They didn’t complain.”

How were people in Bangladesh being trained by an alien civilization without anyone knowing about it? Cathay wondered if the CIA had put so much effort into spying on Russia and China, they missed a spaceport in Bangladesh.

“Can we receive training too?” Cathy asked. She wondered if her plan for intergalactic marriage needed acquiring some new skills.

“Sorry. The training manuals have only been translated into Bengali. Their grammar for postpositions is similar to ours.” Booba said. “Moving on. The last item I’m obliged to inform you of today is…we will be extracting the iron from your earth’s core, so your planet may experience some shrinkage.”

“Shrinkage?”

“Yes. The earthquakes get a little rough. On the positive side, lower gravity is great for parties. Do you acknowledge our terms and conditions.”

Instinctively, Cathy said “yes”, before she had time to realize what she was signing up for.

Many have reported experiencing a sudden moment of clarity in their life. An instant when suddenly their entire perception changes. Cathy experienced that while watching the flickering neon dot of the alien spaceship orbiting Mars on her screen. Cathy switched allegiance. She now believed humanity was Earth’s only hope.

Epilogue:

Booba cancelled his RSVP to the party at the last minute, citing important political developments. In fact, he just wanted to finish the last level of the Battle of Lookai, the game he was currently playing.

The civil servants from Bangladesh arrived the next week. When there was push back on the 29-day workweek, Booba put in the time to launch anti-matter torpedoes at a dozen major military installations. After that, everyone fell into line. In coming years, the Bangladeshis would often remind others about their special communication line to the Bloderians upstairs. There was a theory they might be making it up and simply deciding things on their own, but no one wanted to test it. The people of earth learned to follow all the new Bloderian regulations according to the manuals coming out of Bangladesh.

After the entire planet’s surrender, the US military continued to spend trillions of dollars defending the nation against threats that didn’t exist except on Flox News. General Spitz proudly wore the same polyester uniform that he always had before. He and the military successfully denied that they had anything to do with the nation’s surrender.

Cathy’s life would set off on a different trajectory. She would relocate to the new planet’s capital of Dhaka, learn Bengali, and then over time, working within the system, build a resistance movement that would build the world’s first nuclear space laser. This weapon would one day free the planet from the ravages of the Bloderian mining industry and put it back into the hands of Australians.

Luckily for the Bangladeshis, by Independence Day 2065, the world’s population had become so used to following Bloderian regulations that, even after the roll back to a 5-day work week, they kept their iron grip on middle management positions for the centuries to follow.

Why does farming not work well in a free market?

Say you grow tomatoes here in Ontario.

People like tomatoes. They’re in all the stores. There are industrial canneries. People buy them all the time.

But you don’t have tomatoes all the time. Even if you try to spread out your planting, pretty much every single tomato in Ontario has to be harvested in a 4–6 week window in the summer.

As such, you’re trying to sell your tomatoes at the exact same time everyone else is selling their tomatoes. Even worse, tomatoes have a fairly short shelf life – they have to be eaten or processed within a couple of weeks of becoming ripe.

We have a giant tomato processing plant here in Ontario. It’s running full speed for six weeks a year, and is completely shut down for the other 48 weeks.

And most crops are like this. There are a few, like grain, that will last for months or even years, but you still need a place to store them, and warehousing costs money too.

Potatoes aren’t bad – you can store them for months in ideal conditions. But I mean “ideal”.

Here in Canada, like most other places, we raise cows for milk. Cows have to be milked twice a day every day, the milk must be processed immediately to keep it from spoiling and, luckily, you can do this all year. If there’s too much milk, well, you can turn it into cheese, which keeps longer (but still has to be refrigerated).

Historically, and this goes back to the beginning of agriculture, there was a “middleman” who bought all the crops and got them to market. Farmers needed to sell their crops right away or face ruin. The middlemen made all the profit.

And, of course, there’s no guarantee you will have crops at all. Drought. Disease. Hail. One day you’re planning a vacation to Bermuda and the next you’re killing all your cows because one showed up with hoof and mouth disease. Heartbreaking.

Right now, we’re seeing in the United States that the fact all your crop must be harvested within a one month period of time before it literally rots in front of your eyes becomes a problem if there is a labor shortage. It’s really not about what you pay the workers – it’s getting the workers to the site and getting them off once they do their job. And everyone needs workers during the one month the crop is ready.

Back in olden days, people worked like dogs during planting and harvest, but pretty much slacked off the rest of the year. Still, those few weeks of ultra-hard work were enough to keep them alive another year. That no longer exists. Farm workers are migrants. They go where the work is, then leave when it’s done. That’s how capitalism works. You’re the one with the land (capital) and everyone answers to you, unless like poor Charles Boycott they won’t work for you.

They Believed Western Propaganda… Then Came to China. 🇨🇳

A online China observer said it is a good thing China is not currently a democracy, if Chinese government is democratically elected the world would be in WW3 right now because CCP has put muzzle on the nationalist majority. Do you agree with it?

Kind of…

Here’s the former Japanese ambassador to China speaking out on television, advicing Japanese people to be patient, that China is too strong right now, that the Japanese should wait for when China is weak again, to strike and finish off China once and for all. So ironic that he even uses a Chinese idiom for it.

Can you imagine if a German ambassador says this about finishing off Russia or the Jews? Wouldn’t there be protest from the Russian and Israeli governments?

Yet nothing from the CCP.

And of all people, the Japanese ambassador to China? Can you imagine of the years he was in China, when he was studying our culture, when he was hosted as the most honored Japanese guest at so many Chinese events, under all his smiles and good manners, all the while he was thinking how to kill us all?

The Communists are a bunch of rainbow and unicorn level idealists. They really do believe in the goodness and unity of humanity, and would not rally the public against such threats.

We Chinese commoners are less optimistic. We see these Japanese interviews and refuse to buy into the CCP propaganda shit that the Japanese are our brothers. We would be more concerned about the demons in human skin right next door, who had already killed 35 million of our grandparents. We’d say if Japan wants to finish us off in the future, then let’s not give them that chance.

“My Brother Ended Himself Because Of Women Like Me”

Pictures

What’s an interesting example of a wrongful conviction?

Richard A. Jones’s case blew me away.

He was a 25-year-old father of two who was picked out of a lineup of robbers 20+ years ago.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t the actual robber. The crazy part is that he actually met the real criminal in the prison he was staying in. One can see how someone misidentified them:

Richard Jones is on the left. Richard Amos on the right.

After all was said and done, they realized Richard Amos was the real criminal. But, sadly, Richard Jones had already spent 19 years behind bars, with several of those years knowing that Amos was the actual criminal—but unable to speed the process along to gain his freedom.

He finally won his freedom. He also took it a step further and won $1.1 million in damages from the state.

It still doesn’t feel like enough though.

CHINA UNMASKED: Textbook Myths vs TikTok Reality! 🇨🇳 (Authoritarian Capitalism Debate)

War On Iran: (Just a few links)

Quote of the day:

Alireza Tangsiri, Commander of the IRGC Navy:

We guarantee the security of any oil tanker, under any flag, that can convince an American destroyer to escort it through the Strait of Hormuz.

A few links:

Soaring fuel prices to cast long shadow across US economy (archived) – Financial Times
Escalating Hormuz Crisis Raises Specter of Prolonged Closure (archived) – WSJ
Thinking About the Unthinkable –
Iran’s Grand Plan to End U.S. Presence in the Middle East – Michael Hudson / UNZ

Mearsheimer with Glenn Diesen includes some interesting words on Europe (transcribed here):

U.S. Already Lost Iran War – No Off-Ramp in Sight (vid)

The new Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic has made his first public statement. He did not announce any new policies.

His English language Twitter/X account is: https://x.com/MKhamenei_ir/ – Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei
His Farsi account is: https://x.com/Rahbarenghelab_ – رسانه رهبر انقلاب اسلامی

Posted by b at 17:25 utc | Comments (145)

EXIT INTERVIEW

Written in response to: “Set your story after aliens have officially arrived on Earth.“

Soleil Tron

Candee Wallace adjusted the lapel microphone clipped to the neckline of her pink silk dress, smoothed its knee-length hem, tapped a fingertip against her left and right false eyelashes to make sure they were securely in place and waited for the most monumental interview of her life to begin.The cameraman zoomed in closer; three seconds now. Candee took a deep breath, tilted her head slightly, and beamed her most dazzling smile to the entire world.“As you all know, this is an unprecedented television broadcast. Today, before your eyes, I will conduct an interview that will be broadcast for the first time worldwide, live, in real-time.This unique technology has been granted to us for this interview by today’s guest, an alien being from another planet.” Candee’s usually cheerful large blue eyes were dead serious now as she gave an equally stern nod.“That’s right, folks,” she continued. “We here at Best News Now Network were chosen to conduct this interview by our alien visitors from a worldwide pool of news networks offered to them. So here we are on this historical day to finally welcome to Earth an alien visitor who has agreed to answer any questions I might have. As I said before, this interview is being broadcast live; this is not CGI but real.” Candee let her statement sink in momentarily before rising from her beige boucle set chair.“For this interview, we will be using a universal translator also provided by our guest so that everyone worldwide can understand our guest in their local language.” Candee gazed directly into the camera for dramatic effect.“Without further ado, people of the world, It is my profound pleasure to introduce our guest.” Candee gave a slight bow and held out her right hand in welcome.From behind the stage curtain, a very tall, slender being stepped forward and strode across the set stage to take Candee’s outstretched, perfectly manicured hand.It resembled a human in almost every way except for its height and the gray-green color of its smooth, featureless torso. It appeared to wear no clothing, or at least no type of clothing that anyone on Earth had ever seen.Its head was slightly larger than usual, and its eyes as well, but not the oversized slanted black eyes of the stereotypical extraterrestrial of popular culture. This being’s oversized eyes had a pupil and an iris but were a light opalescent green color that reflected flashes of lavender underneath the studio lights. It appeared to have a normal-looking nose and mouth with evenly spaced, slightly blue-tinted teeth.It held Candee’s hand in its large, long-fingered hand and politely bowed to the cameras. Candee motioned to a beige boucle chair that matched her own but was slightly oversized to accommodate the being’s long legs and arms.“On behalf of our planet, welcome to Earth,” Candee said, taking a seat and smiling at her guest. She smoothed her already sleek blonde bob and glanced at the small stack of notecards she now held. “Before we begin, what would you like us to call you? What is your name?”The alien turned to face the camera lens. “You can call me Dean,”It spoke in a pleasantly deep voice with a casual-sounding American midwestern accent. It seemed to display a Mona Lisa-type smile on its face.Candee appeared to be shocked for only a beat; she gave her most professional smile and continued. “Well, then, Dean, it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.” she nodded.“May I ask if you are a male or female of your species?” she inquired.“Neither one, actually,” Dean answered. “ We really don’t have a set gender.”“I see,” Candee said. “I’d like to expand on that question a little later, but for now, could you tell me what brought you to our planet?”

“Sure,” Dean nodded at the camera. “So, we have actually been here for quite a while now. Like close to two hundred thousand years, give or take.”

“Really?” Candee spoke, raising one perfectly arched eyebrow. “Why, then, have your species decided to contact us now? Have you contacted human beings before in the period that you have been here? I’m sorry, I seem to be getting ahead of myself, but why have you been here for such a long period of time?”

“Our planetary studies usually run about 200K, more or less.” Dean nodded. “To answer your question about prior contact, honestly, would you want to plunge yourself face-first into an ant den?”

Candee stared, entirely at a loss for words for a moment. “Well, I see. All right then,” she fumbled with her stack of cards.

“That sounds pretty harsh, but you guys are nuts,” Dean said. “Always fighting over piles of dirt as far as we can tell, for two hundred thousand years, Geez.”

“Is there no such thing as war or conflict among your species?” Candee asked. “And if not, how did your species evolve peacefully?”

“We got the same instructions from day one, just like you guys. The only difference is we followed the rules; you guys never have.” Dean spoke, raising its palms in the air.

“Are you speaking of instructions from a higher power? From a God or God himself as we call him in some religions of Earth?” Candee asked, leaning forward.

“Let’s just say from a higher power,” Dean stated calmly. “I have to be careful what I say here, Whew. I don’t want to start another World War.” It shook its head.

“Let’s backtrack just a bit,” Candee composed herself. “Why did you initially choose to study our planet?”

“We choose planetary studies based on whether or not they have emerging intelligent life. If the emerging intelligence seems promising, that is, if we think they might eventually be able to join us in the cosmos, we reveal ourselves, welcome them to the club, give them a hand.”

“I see, so is that what your species is doing with our planet? Revealing yourselves to welcome us to the cosmos?” she smiled and nodded to the camera.

“No way,” Dean said, shaking its head. “We revealed ourselves to you to let you know that we have completed our studies, and we’re out of here. We just wanted to clear up the confusion over UAPs or UFOs and let you know our findings, for the record.”

“If I understand correctly, your species has decided not to help or welcome us at all?”

“Nope.” Dean shrugged. “We can’t help you; you guys would just use any tech stuff or knowledge we hand over to create weapons for more pile of dirt wars.”

Candee stared at Dean; her lips pressed into a firm line. “What about medical knowledge? Wouldn’t that be useful to people suffering from incurable diseases? Think of the good that might come of helping us to overcome our worst diseases.”

Dean shook its head. “ It’s our policy only to help intelligent life we deem worthy of helping.”

“What are we as human beings to do then? What could we do to make ourselves worthy of help?” Candee asked in frustration.

“Maybe in another 200K?” Dean shrugged. “ You guys can’t even take care of your planet. You are constantly trying to devise new ways to destroy each other. And the way you treat animals? You guys are messed up.”

Candee looked down at her stack of cards. “Is it possible that your species might return sometime in the future to check on our progress?”

“No way.” Dean smiled.

“Are there other species of intelligent life in the cosmos that might be willing to help humankind in any way, technologically or medically? To give us a boost?” Candee asked, hopefully.

“Nope,” Dean said, shrugging its large shoulders. “They’ve all come to the same conclusion; you guys are pretty hopeless.”

Candee sighed and placed her cards face down in her lap. “Well then, Dean, would you tell us where you’re from? What planet did your species originate from?”

“No, I’m not giving you guys that information. We really don’t want humans visiting us in the future.” Dean smiled and shrugged again.

“ I see. So you agreed to this interview today to inform humankind that your two hundred thousand-year study is over, that we have failed, and that we have no redeeming qualities as a species?” she stated flatly.

“That pretty much sums it up,” Dean said, nodding at the camera.

Candee laid her stack of cards on the oval coffee table between them, folded her hands in her lap, and faced the camera; the sparkle in her eyes transformed into a blank stare.

“Well, people of Earth, you’ve heard what our historic alien guest, Dean, has had to say. I guess that concludes our interview. On behalf of our Best News Now Network, and planet Earth, I thank Dean for taking the time to be with us today.” she said.

Dean slowly rose from its chair, bowed toward Candee and the camera lens, and vanished into a sparkling whirlwind of purple light.

Fried Chicken Gizzards

Not everyone loves gizzards, but this is a very good recipe if you do!

Ingredients

Chicken gizzards
Salt
Pepper
Garlic powder
Poultry seasoning
Sage
Cajun seasoning
Self-rising flour to coat
Oil for frying

Instructions

Rinse the gizzards well. Boil the gizzards with a little meat tenderizer until they are done. Pat dry with a paper towel.
Season to taste. Coat with flour. Place in hot cooking oil in a Dutch oven or cast iron skillet (be careful). Cover with a lid to help reduce splattering. Also, when a lid is placed over any frying food, it helps to keep it moist. Watch carefully as this doesn’t take long!

How do you avoid getting sucker punched?

I worked as a bouncer and learned a ton about fights and de-escalating them. For the record, I didn’t last long as a bouncer.

I’m not some tough guy. I only got the job because I’m a larger guy.

Here’s what I learned

If someone is in your face, angry, and overcome with emotion —you are always at risk of being sucker punched — full stop. The biggest danger is that they are too close.

Things trend worse if they’re repeating themselves over and over. It means adrenaline has hijacked their brain. They’re on the verge of sucker punching you.

There’s no way to predict a sucker punch. They are all different. Sometimes he looks away first. Sometimes he looks at the ground. Other times, they look right at you.

There’s an old saying by Bruce Lee, “Never take your eye off your opponent, even when you are bowing.”

If they are yelling and aggressive, keep them at arm’s length. That’s the best thing you can do, and just reiterate that you can’t let them get that close to you.

But be willing to walk away. One of the most dangerous things you can do is get into a street fight. To you, it might be a street fight. To them, it might be much more.

You win every street fight you avoid.

Recently, Trump said that “600,000 Chinese students will be allowed to enter the US.” For Chinese students who have faced visa tightening and entry barriers in recent years, is this a sign of warming or just another political bargaining chip?

The brother of a Student in the University where my son is doing research, recently went to the US and returned back after an extremely unpleasant experience

The guy was going to study Business & Economics not Semiconductors or Chips or anything high level

Stage I:-

First they ask all Chinese students on the F-1 Visa directly in the Airport

Do you have any relatives who are members of the Chinese Communist Party ?

Relatives could mean a distant cousin or uncle or aunt also. Not just parents or brother

Does anyone in your family work for the Government of China?

This time it’s family. Could be Immediate Family or extended family. It could even be a distant uncle twice removed.

They literally tell you so

And Government in China literally means most organizations as most as State owned

If you lie on a Government document, you can be punished with Sections XYZ , ABC etc and pay $ 100,000 Fine and upto 5 years imprisonment

Yep this is also mentioned in the form clearly and openly

Nowadays NO children of CPC officials or even members go to the US for study

Even if you say you have an Aunt who is a Junior Legate, Third Tier Secretary in Zhoushan Province, that’s grounds to turn down your entry

Stage II:-

If you manage to clear Stage I

Within 1–3 weeks, someone from the State Department will visit you in your University

Talk to your professor

Why are you talking this elective? Why did you attend this particular seminar when you are in Business and Economics? How are you getting money?

Chinese Students are many times asked to give details of their parents, siblings, where they work, what they do

For instance this guys brother is an Engineering Student studying Intelligent systems (in my sons university) , so that is a major red line now

At this stage, he got an email that his F-1 Visa was under reconsideration due to “National Security Reasons”

He PANICKED and was frightened of arrests etc and called home and took the first flight home

This was OHIO by the way

If you don’t get any mails within 30–45 days of Stage II, it means YOU ARE CLEARED TO STUDY

Graduates

Graduates, Post Graduates are both given a hard time during graduation

They have a list of PRC citizens and question them on the day of graduation

Why do you want a H1B Visa? Why are you studying a doctorate?

Most of them leave even before Graduation now

Especially in STEM fields (90% of them)

They also ask if they can check your laptop and phone

If you say no, they generally don’t go aggressive but sometimes they can threaten to get a warrant

Huawei Phones are NOT ALLOWED

They can run some software on your phone , they claim it’s for security but Chinese are instructed by their Government to DUMP those phones immediately after entering the US and buy new phones on campus

Bottom line – CHINESE STUDENTS ARE NOT GOING TO USA IN LARGE NUMBERS

The Only Mainlanders who are now going are

Those who have SOME FAMILY in the US as US Citizens or Green card holders whose parents are in Business
Mainly those who live in Shanghai
90% for Bachelors Degree in Business, Economics, Marketing, Theatre and such courses.
90% for Masters Degree in STEM. No longer Doctorate courses.
RICH business families in China
Mediocre Students who can’t qualify for the first 100,000 seats in the Top Universities after GaoKao

Instead Students are dropping a year, preparing for Gaokao again, working for Temu, Shein or Meituan and earning 4,500 to 8,000 Yuan a month and getting admissions into University after 1–2 years

Or going to Australia (Admissions up 152% compared to 2018) , Europe (Admissions up 61% compared to 2018) or even UK (Admissions up 77% compared to 2018)

Its virtually a North Korean like description 😱😱😱😱😱

So NOBODY CARES about Trump and his 600,000 students

These practices are being followed even when Biden was President

Could the Russian Federation break up?

Any person who was over the age of 10 in August 1991 remembers this image: “Swan Lake” ballet on all TV channels during anti-Gorbachev coup.

Exactly 34 years ago, on August 19, 1991, a group of Soviet generals tried to roll back Gorbachev’s democratic reforms — take the Soviet Union back to totalitarianism.

The generals announced forming of the Committee for the State of Emergency (GKChP), sent troops to arrest Gorbachev at his vacation home in Crimea, and pronounced they are taking over.

The attempt failed.

I remember watching the shaking hands of the Committee chief Yanaev, as he was saying that he would replace Gorbachev. Everyone remembers this moment as well. It was GKChP’s omen — this wasn’t going to work.

Tanks on the Red Square — eerie.

We absolutely didn’t know what to think.
But I remember feeling that I was terrified of going back to pre-1985. In May 1991, we were allowed to travel abroad without an exit visa. I immediately bought a tour to Europe to see the outside world. Now, they were going to take it away from us?

Boris Yeltsin climbed on a tank with a megaphone convincing soldiers to stand down.

The coup ended in 3 days.
In just 4 months, the USSR collapsed.

Instead of saving the USSR, the coup attempt destroyed it.

Right now, I have the same feeling as in August 1991.

August is traditionally a bad month for Muscovites. The month of grave events causing long-lasting ripples.

Putin began the war in Ukraine to “save” (restore) the USSR. It was his lifelong dream.

But he made a grave mistake: he invaded Ukraine based on false intel. And when he realized the intel was false, he decided to continue, based on his own false expectation that either Ukraine or the West will get tired and give up. Then he made another mistake: he decided that Trump could save him. He invested heavily in Trump’s re-election, hoping this would give him the end of western support for Ukraine. His love of influence operations — and his success with them in the past — led him astray once again.

After succeeding in helping Trump get elected, Putin made another giant mistake: he didn’t accept the great deal offered by Trump, which would allow him to end the war.

And now he keeps making things worse.

This is how the Russian Federation could break up. One grave mistake after another, a chain of grave mistakes leads to a collapse.

It happened 34 years ago — it can happen again.

Top Trump Administration Officials Move Onto Military Bases for Protection

Hal Turner Nation March 12, 2026

Multiple senior Trump officials have moved into fortified military housing near Washington, D.C. due to threats from drug cartels, critics, and resulting security concerns.

Reports from The Atlantic (Oct 2025), NYT, Axios, and recent updates (e.g., Yahoo on Pam Bondi) confirm multiple senior Trump officials—including Stephen Miller, Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth, Kristi Noem, and now AG Pam Bondi—have moved into secure military housing on bases near DC.

Reasons cited: safety from threats/protests.

They pay rent; some homes were for senior officers. The “fortified” part aligns with base security.

Earth’s Mantis Overlords | They’ve Been Here all Along (STRIPPED)

(Repost) What happened after Alien Interview that helped to set up MAJestic (duplicate)

I have been asked to “fill in the details” regarding what happened in the space of time from when “Alien Interview” was transcribed, and when I entered MAJestic. It’s a rather simplistic narrative, but I will include it here.

For the record.

1945

World War II ended.

The United States launched two nuclear explosions on Japan. The first was an atomic bomb. The second was a hydrogen bomb.

The USA began operation paperclip where research and technology in the ruins of Germany were plundered and shipped to the United States for testing. Most of this equipment went to the South West states for testing and evaluation, as well as many of the Nazi German scientists involved in their development.

1947

The Domain started to investigate the nuclear detonations. That brought their vehicles into the air space around Japan, and South Western United States.

Meanwhile, the testing of the (Operation paperclip) procured German radar systems occurred in New Mexico. Simultaneously these systems uncovered cloaked extraterrestrial vehicles and systems. It caused them to behave erratically and eventually crash.

There was a crash of a Domain vehicle in Roswell New Mexico in 1947. The nurse that interviewed the type-1 grey extraterrestrial transcribed the interrogation.

Majestic 12, also known as MJ-12 was established immediately afterwards.

This organization is the code name of a secret committee of scientists, military leaders, and government officials, formed in 1947 by an executive order by U.S. President Harry S. Truman to facilitate recovery and investigation of alien spacecraft. Evidence suggests that all the 12 participants were in Roswell, NM during the interrogation.

The leaked secret government documents surfaced upon the death of the last living member of the initial committee. This occurred in 1984.

1948 through 1953 / 1954

The commander of the downed Domain vehicle stopped moving and “died”.

MAJestic began to use the radar systems to down all extraterrestrial vehicles. This action resulted in downing and capture of numerous extraterrestrial vehicles and species.

At that time, four separate and unique extraterrestrial species were identified. This resulted in a greatly expanded role for MAJestic, and all sort of programs and structures were put in place.

This action continued in earnest, but got the Domain’s attention when yet another Domain vehicle was disabled and crashed.

This forced The Domain to make an appearance to the ranking American leadership. They knew who to contact, when and how as they were “keyed” to these consciousnesses from the interview in 1947. They made an appearance at the individuals bedroom, and startled him completely.

It is not known what was spoken.

What is known is that afterwards, there was a series of formal meetings. The first was established by the Domain. As was the second one.

The third meeting was by mutual arrangement and established the basic relationship between MAJestic and The Domain.

1955

By 1955/6 the agreement between the Domain and MAJestic was in place.

A program and plan was developed jointly by The Domain and MAJestic in which certain “special” individuals would be chosen as “representatives / interfaces / Liaison officers / Ambassadors” between The Domain and MAJestic.

Various programs were set in motion.

My program came into being around 1955 -1957. I was selected by the Domain and agreed to participation in the non-physical realm. Whether this was inside of “Heaven” or outside of it is unknown. My memories were erased as I entered the confusing static field that surrounds the earth physical environment.

I was groomed for my role after that. And was physically born in 1958.

Thoughts and Conclusions

My experiences are suggestive of there being an amnesia field that surround the Prison Complex, especially around the physical earth. However, the idea of me going “into” a tunnel “towards the light” is not something that I recall. Though, this could very well be something that was erased from my memories.

Putting together what I know we can suggest some ideas and concepts worth musing about.

Amnesia Field

There is absolutely a static filled, cloudy, foggy field that surround the earth. I well remember this field and how my memories gradually disappeared as I entered it.

Tunnel of Light

Whether or not there is a “tunnel of light” is unknown to me personally. Everyone talks and discusses the tunnel of light, but to me it just seems to manifest as a “parting of the fog” rather than a clear and direct tunnel. You can peer towards a target, or an objective to head towards, and older consciousness that have gone through many such reincarnations know exactly what to do upon death.

MM Prebirth experience

My knowledge and prior histories suggest a life in and about “Heaven”. To include meeting “elders”, “guardian angels”, and other important beings. I have a distinct memory of a prior reincarnation that I have written about before.

However, my memories of what this life would be is cloudy and sparse.

I know that I had a large meeting of some type, and that this life was all completely mapped out to the point that I was excited to enter into it. If you can believe that! And that I specifically told myself not to forget that this life was going to be an exciting roller coaster adventure. So obviously, I knew what I was getting into, and why as well as what to expect.

Thus, I had to have joined or agreed to work with The Domain long before I was born.

I will tell everyone that while The Domain Commander says that I was Mades Escapleon, I have no memories of that life. What memories that I have acquired through my Past Life Regression hypnosis concerned growth as an assemblage of other life forms contributing to the consciousness that exists today.

This does not in any way suggest a dwarf-like funny little administrator man running a Prison Complex for the “Old Empire”. Nor does it mean that the Domain Commander was lying. It means nothing.

Except…

…that I was not ready for the full scope of my involvement with all which has been going on.

At that time, when I did my Past Life Regression my targets were a search for answers about my relationships with others; my piss-poor luck at working at a stable company, and why I ended up being married to a mentally ill woman. I had no knowledge of anything that would inspire me to ask questions related to MAJestic issues.

At that time I did not recall that I was in MAJestic. Instead, this (past life regression incident) occurred ten years prior to my retirement.

All of which means absolutely nothing.

All that matters is what is going on right now. I can only hope that I am “living up to my end of the bargain”, and making a difference, a positive one, in the world.

What’s Next

Yah. I’m gonna die.

It’s going to happen. We all die.

Usually it comes quickly without warning, though both of my parents realized that their time was drawing near and tried to ready us kids for the shock of their departure. Good thing that. Though it still came as a shock.

When my time comes, my family will grieve. MM followers will wonder about the silence. But it should be obvious.

Death is a natural process.

As I figure it, were I to stay in the United States, in that "lifestyle" I would probably die around 80 years old. Thus giving me some 15 years or so left to keep clunking about on this ball of mud.
.
But I live in China, and my lifestyle is healthier, with far less stress, and better in every way. I figure that I could probably make it to my high 80's maybe even 90. And that gives me another 25 years or so.
.
Of course, world war III, coronavirus, and cigarettes and alcohol might shorten that calculus substantially.
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I figure that the USA stole 5 years of my life. So I DESERVE 80 years plus the 5 stolen years = 85 years. Minimum.

In any event, let’s hope to have a nice calm peaceful death, and when I die, and when that happens…

… I will summon the Domain Commander and await for retrieval. I will not go through anything or expect anything or follow the defaults. This is my last time on this fucking Prison Shit Hole, and I am NEVER going to return to it. Well, at least, that is what I think, anyways.

How do I know?

Consider the following statement(s)…

..from my past life regression session in the late 1990’s. This was long before I was “woken up” from my MAJestic induced amnesia of my operational segment(s). Thus at that time, I had no idea of my actual life or role. Not until I was “retired ” in the ADC Pine Bluff facility did I recall my role. And in this memory erased role…

I told the hypnotist regression expert that…

This was [1] my absolute last reincarnation on the earth.
My life has been one of [2] wrapping up karma and [3] performing good “works”.
Though at the time, I had no idea what those “good works” were.
That [4] I was moving on to bigger and better things.
That what ever form that I would take on in the future, [5] it would not be human.
And [6] that I was a “trans dimensional” being.

Combined with what I know now, and what I was exposed to then, we can see how puzzle pieces are fitting and falling into place. This expands upon the entire MM adventure saga.

Do you want more?

I have more posts in my Past Life Regression Index here…

Past Life

Articles & Links

Master Index

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Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you very much.

Looking a little closer at ol' Hal's list above, one can easily assume that most if not all of these…

我昨天（5/11）在本境加入創造物銷毀機制，可以用來銷毀監獄的某些東西或舊帝國，不過目前感覺很危險。 Yesterday (5/11) that I add the mechanism into this 境 for scrapping the things which be created. It can…

等待美國公布MAJestic。 Wait for the USA publish MAJestic. 我是在表述，並不是要大家等待，或是說我在等待。 I am expressing, it's not means to let people waiting, nor say…

I recall that SHTF post well, Metallicman. Seems like yesterday. I can't help wondering whether or not that Broken Arrow…

Glad to see that you stuck your nose out of the foxhole! -MM