Snuffy.
When I was out of university, I visited home and checked in with my High School friends. The smartest kid in our class: John E. had dropped out of college and was working in the local lumber yard, and getting high on marijuana every single day.
Being old friends we talked about life and work and he told me about “snuffy”.
Now Snuffy was a co-worker of his. And also (as I tell you all now) an old co-worker of my father. And Snuffy loved to eat. In fact, he would eat anything given to him.
So one day…
(I know youse guys know what’s coming…)
My friend John E. offered him a sandwich. But it was conditional. He had to eat the entire thing. Lock, stock and barrel or else he need to pay him $20 (big money in those days).
Now, John E. put an entire container of “chew” in the sandwich between the lettuce, tomatoes, peanut butter and turkey. ‘Chew” is a chewable form of tobacco that is popular in Western Pennsylvania. And a full container is about 100ml. Sizable. Big. Large.
Sure as shit, he ate it all.
Burped.
Said it was delicious, but a bit “spicy”.
Life lessons.
Don’t you know.
Today’s post…
Was the Interstate Highway System a mistake in view of its long-term environmental consequences?
So, let’s talk about “Good Interstate” and “Bad Interstate”
It’s not like the United States didn’t have highways pretty much everywhere when World War II ended in 1945. Route 66, for example, went all the way from Chicago to Los Angeles. If there had been no interstate system, cars and trucks would still be using those roads today. Heck, back in the 1970s, my family drove from Toronto to Orlando via Detroit, taking I-75 all the way. The problem was that I-75 hadn’t been completed yet so, through a couple of very long stretches, we were on crowded 4 lane highways. People still took them.
So, when Eisenhower becomes president, American highways haven’t improved much since he led a road expedition across the country in 1919, a trip that took 62 days and destroyed many of the vehicles they used. Highway standards were wildly different from state to state, with many highways barely having room for two standard cars to pass. Bridges and tunnels were rare to non-existent. Some highways were impassible in winter because they simply couldn’t be maintained. Others were closed during times of heavy rain. Through the numerous mountainous regions in the country, they went back and forth through the mountains hugging the terrain, often for dear life.
Now, Canada currently has a national highway system that is only slightly better than what the United States had in the 1950s, but at least it’s all paved and open all year (at least the main routes). However, a lot of key highways are still two lanes. They all get heavy use.
So let’s take a look at a basic interstate map
There is absolutely nothing wrong with this. It joins most of America’s major cities and forms the backbone of the road transportation system. These roads are safe and open year round. One runs through the Donner Pass, which killed most of the people who first attempted to cross it when they didn’t reach it before ten feet of snow blocked it. Now, it’s merely an inconvenience for the California Department of Highways, which keeps a fleet of plows ready. Yes, several portions of it are crowded, and that’s a problem that can’t be addressed with “more highways” but part of it is due to another problem.
So, let’s look at the real problem. “Bad Interstates”. Interstates that join large population centers to other large population centers are crucial. What are not crucial are these.
This is Detroit, Michigan. Motor City. The place that made automobiles a normal thing to own. Starting in the 1940s, the federal government, state of Michigan and local leaders felt that the way to go was to build lots of freeways to keep cars moving.
But it was a trap. It was one of the reasons for the city’s decline as cars started to displace offices and people. The highways cut neighbourhoods in half. People used to walk in downtown Detroit, and only recently started to do it again. However, the interstates that go right through the city, like I-75 and I-94, plus their spurs, plus local ones like the Davison and the Lodge and stroads like 8-Mile and Telegraph Road, while great for tooling around the city by car, make navigating it in any other way impossible.
During the 1989 earthquake in San Francisco, one of their freeways collapsed. They didn’t bother to rebuild it. Traffic actually improved, and the waterfront is now a thriving neighbourhood. Rochester, New York is in the process of removing the “Inner Loop”, a small freeway that joined the three urban interstates that came downtown, and completely destroyed the area. It’s now starting to thrive again.
Freeways just don’t have any place in an urban environment. They automatically turn it into a car-dependent suburban environment, increase parking requirements, displace transit, and don’t really do anything to make traffic more than marginally better.
Brocato’s Spumoni
Yield: 8 to 10 servings
Ingredients
- 3 pints pistachio ice cream
- 3 pints strawberry ice cream
- 1 cup heavy cream, whipped to stiff peaks
- 1/2 cup candied cherries, chopped
Instructions
- Put a 2 1/2 quart ice cream mold in freezer.
- In a large bowl, beat the pistachio ice cream with electric mixer until smooth but not melted. Evenly spread the pistachio ice cream in the chilled mold. Freeze until firm.
- In another bowl, beat the strawberry ice cream with electric mixer until smooth but not melted. Then spread the strawberry ice cream over the pistachio ice cream. Freeze until firm.
- Mix the chopped cherries into the whipped cream and spread as the final layer in the mold. Freeze until firm.
Niger forces have attacked a French military base
This is part of a much larger video. Important section begins at this clip.
Sergey Karaganov: By using its nuclear weapons, Russia could save humanity from a global catastrophe
A tough but necessary decision would likely force the West to back off, enabling an earlier end to the Ukraine crisis and preventing it from expanding to other states
By Professor Sergey Karaganov, honorary chairman of Russia’s Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, and academic supervisor at the School of International Economics and Foreign Affairs Higher School of Economics (HSE) in Moscow
This article
has sparked major debate among experts in Russia about nuclear weapons, their role and the conditions of their use.
This is especially the case given Sergey Karaganov’s status as a former presidential adviser to both Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin, and his position as head of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, a noted Moscow think tank.
Some prominent figures have reacted with dismay, while others have been less critical.
RT has decided it would be beneficial for our readers to read it in full. The following piece has been translated and lightly edited.
***
Our country, and its leadership, seems to me to be facing a difficult choice. It is becoming increasingly clear that our clash with the West will not end even if we achieve a partial – let alone a crushing – victory in Ukraine.
Even if we completely liberate the Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, it will be a minimal victory. A slightly greater success would be to liberate the whole of eastern and southern Ukraine within a year or two. But it would still leave part of the country with an even more embittered ultra-nationalist population pumped full of weapons – a bleeding wound that threatens inevitable complications, such as another war.
The situation could be worse if we liberate the whole of Ukraine at the cost of monstrous sacrifices and are left with ruins and a population that mostly hates us. It would take more than a decade to “re-educate” them.
Any of these options, especially the last one, will distract Russia from the much-needed shift of its spiritual, economic, military and political center to the East of Eurasia. We will be stuck with a wasteful focus on the West. And the territories of today’s Ukraine, especially the central and western ones, will attract resources – both human and financial. These regions were heavily subsidised even in Soviet times.
Meanwhile, hostility from the West will continue; it will support a slow-burning guerrilla civil war.
A more attractive option is the liberation and reunification of the east and south, and the imposition of capitulation on the remnants of Ukraine with complete demilitarization, creating a buffer, friendly state. But such an outcome would only be possible if we are able to break the West’s will to support the Kiev junta, and use it against us, forcing the US-led bloc into a strategic retreat.
And here I come to a crucial but hardly discussed issue. The root cause of – and indeed the main reason for – the Ukrainian crisis, as well as many other conflicts in the world, and the general increase in military threats, is the accelerating failure of the contemporary Western ruling elites.
This crisis is accompanied by an unprecedentedly rapid shift in the balance of power in the world in favor of the global majority, driven economically by China and partly by India, with Russia as the military and strategic anchor. This weakening not only infuriates the imperial-cosmopolitan elites (US President Joe Biden and his ilk) but also frightens the imperial-national elites (such as his predecessor Donald Trump). The West is losing the advantage it has held for five centuries to siphon off the wealth of the entire world by imposing its political and economic order and establishing its cultural dominance, mainly by brute force. So there is no quick end to the defensive, but aggressive, confrontation that the West has unleashed.
This moral, political and economic collapse has been brewing since the mid-1960s, was interrupted by the collapse of the USSR, but resumed with renewed vigour in the 2000s (the defeats of the Americans and their allies in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the crisis of the Western economic model in 2008 were milestones).
In order to slow down this seismic shift, the West has temporarily consolidated itself. The US has turned Ukraine into a punching bag to tie the hands of Russia, the politico-military lynchpin of a non-Western world freed from the shackles of neocolonialism. Ideally, of course, the Americans would simply like to blow up our country and thus radically weaken the emerging alternative superpower, China. We, either not realizing the inevitability of the clash or hoarding our strength, have been slow to act preemptively. Moreover, in line with modern, mainly Western, political and military thinking, we were rash in raising the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons, inaccurate in assessing the situation in Ukraine, and not entirely successful in launching the current military operation.
By failing internally, Western elites have actively fed the weeds that have taken root in the soil of 70 years of prosperity, satiation and peace. These comprise of anti-human ideologies: the denial of family, homeland, history, love between men and women, faith, service to higher ideals, everything that is human. Their philosophy is to weed out those who resist. The aim is to neuter people in order to reduce their ability to resist modern “globalist” capitalism, which is becoming more and more obviously unjust and harmful to man and humanity.
Meanwhile, a weakened US is destroying Western Europe and other countries dependent on it, trying to push them into a confrontation that will follow Ukraine. The elites in most of these countries have lost their bearings and, panicked by the crisis in their own positions at home and abroad, are dutifully leading their countries to the slaughter. At the same time, because of greater failure, a sense of powerlessness, centuries of Russophobia, intellectual degradation and a loss of strategic culture, their hatred is almost more intense than that of the US.
Thus, the trajectory of most Western countries clearly points towards a new fascism, which could be called “liberal” totalitarianism.
In the future, and this is the most important thing, it will only get worse. Truces are possible, but reconciliation is not. Anger and despair will continue to grow in waves and waves. This vector of Western movement is a clear sign of the drift towards the outbreak of World War Three. It has already begun and could erupt into a full-blown conflagration either by accident, or due to the growing incompetence and irresponsibility of the ruling circles of the West.
The introduction of artificial intelligence and the robotization of war increase the risk of unintended escalation. Machines can act outside the control of confused elites.
The situation is aggravated by “strategic parasitism” – in 75 years of relative peace, people have forgotten the horrors of war, have stopped fearing even nuclear weapons. Everywhere, but especially in the West, the instinct for self-preservation has weakened.
I have spent many years studying the history of nuclear strategy and have come to an unequivocal, if unscientific, conclusion. The advent of nuclear weapons is the result of the intervention of the Almighty, who, appalled that mankind had unleashed two world wars within a generation, costing tens of millions of lives, gave us the weapons of Armageddon to show those who had lost their fear of hell that it existed. On that fear rested the relative peace of the last three-quarters of a century.
But now that fear is gone. The unthinkable in terms of previous notions of nuclear deterrence is happening – a group of ruling elites, in a fit of desperate rage, have unleashed a full-scale war in the underbelly of a nuclear superpower.
The fear of atomic escalation must be restored. Otherwise humanity is doomed.
It is not only, and not even so much, what the future world order will look like that is being decided in the fields of Ukraine right now. But rather whether the world we are used to will be preserved at all, or if all will be left is radioactive ruins, poisoning the remnants of humanity.
By breaking the West’s will in imposing its aggression, we will not only save ourselves and finally free the world from the Western yoke of five centuries, but we will also salvage the whole of humanity. By pushing the West towards catharsis and the abandonment of the hegemony of its elites, we will force it to retreat before a global catastrophe. Humanity will be given a new chance to develop.
Proposed solution
Of course, there is an uphill struggle ahead. It is also necessary to solve our own internal problems – to finally get rid of the mindset of Western-centrism and of the Westernizers in the administrative class. Especially the compradors and their peculiar way of thinking. Of course, in this area, the NATO bloc is helping us, unwittingly.
Our 300-year journey around Europe has given us a lot of useful lessons and it has helped us to form our great culture. Let us cherish our European heritage. But it is time to return home, to ourselves. Let us begin, with the baggage we have accumulated, to live in our own way. Our friends in the Foreign Ministry have recently made a real breakthrough by referring to Russia as a civilizational state in their foreign policy concept. I would add – a civilization of civilizations, open to the North as well as to the South, to the West as well as to the East. Now the main direction of development is to the South, to the North and, above all, to the East.
The confrontation with the West in Ukraine, however it ends, should not distract us from the strategic internal movement – spiritual, cultural, economic, political, military and political – towards the Urals, Siberia and the Pacific Ocean. A new Ural-Siberian strategy is needed, one that includes several powerful spiritually uplifting projects, including, of course, the creation of a third capital in Siberia. This movement should become part of the much-needed formulation of the “Russian Dream” – the image of the Russia and the world to which one aspires.
I have often written, and I am not alone in this, that great states without a great idea cease to be such or simply disappear into the void. History is littered with the graves of powers that lost their way. This idea should be created from above and not rely, as fools or lazy people do, on what comes from below. It must correspond to the deepest values and aspirations of the people and, above all, it must take us all forward. But it is the responsibility of the elite and the leadership of the country to formulate it. The delay in putting forward such a vision is unacceptably long.
But for the future to come to pass, the resistance of the forces of the past – i.e. the West – must be overcome. If this is not achieved, there will almost certainly be a full-scale world war. Which will probably be the last of its kind.
And here I come to the most difficult part of this article. We can keep fighting for another year or two, or even three, sacrificing thousands and thousands of our best men and grinding up hundreds of thousands more who are unfortunate enough to fall into the tragic historical trap of what is now called Ukraine. But this military operation cannot end in a decisive victory without forcing the West into a strategic retreat or even capitulation. We must force the West to abandon its attempts to turn back history, to abandon its attempts at global domination, and to force it to deal with its own problems, to manage its current multifaceted crisis. To put it crudely, it is necessary for the West to simply “piss off” and end its interference in the direction of Russia and the rest of the world.
However, for this to happen, Western elites need to rediscover their own lost sense of self-preservation by understanding that attempts to wear down Russia by playing the Ukrainians against it are counterproductive for the West itself.
The credibility of nuclear deterrence must be restored by lowering the unacceptably high threshold for the use of atomic weapons and by moving cautiously but quickly up the ladder of deterrence-escalation. The first steps have already been taken through statements to this effect by the president and other leaders, by beginning to deploy nuclear weapons and their delivery vehicles in Belarus, and by increasing the combat effectiveness of the strategic deterrent forces. There are quite a few steps on this ladder. I count about two dozen. It could even go as far as warning our compatriots and all people of good will about the need to leave their homes near the objects of possible nuclear strikes in countries directly supporting the Kiev regime. The enemy must know that we are ready to launch a preemptive retaliatory strike in response to its current and past aggression in order to prevent a slide into a global thermonuclear war.
I have often said and written that with the right strategy of deterrence and even use, the risk of a ‘retaliatory’ nuclear or other strike on our territory can be minimized. Only if there is a madman in the White House who also hates his own country will the US decide to strike in ‘defense’ of the Europeans and invite retaliation by sacrificing a hypothetical Boston for a notional Poznan. The Americans and the Western Europeans are well aware of this, they just prefer not to think about it. We, too, have contributed to this recklessness with our peace-loving pronouncements. Having studied the history of US nuclear strategy, I know that after the USSR acquired a credible nuclear retaliatory capability, Washington never seriously considered using nuclear weapons on Soviet territory, even though it publicly bluffed. When nuclear weapons were considered, it was only against “advancing” Soviet forces in Western Europe. I know that the late Chancellors Helmut Kohl and Helmut Schmidt fled from their bunkers as soon as the question of such use came up in an exercise.
Movement down the ladder of containment-escalation should be fairly quick. Given the current direction of the West – and the degradation of most of its elites – each successive decision it makes is more incompetent and ideologically veiled than the last. And, at present, we cannot expect these elites to be replaced by more responsible and reasonable ones. This will only happen after a catharsis, leading to the abandonment of much ambition.
We cannot repeat the ‘Ukrainian scenario’. For a quarter of a century we were not listened to when we warned that NATO enlargement would lead to war; we tried to delay, to “negotiate”. As a result, we ended up in a serious armed conflict. Now the price of indecision is an order of magnitude higher than it would have been earlier.
But what if the present Western leaders refuse to back down? Perhaps they have lost all sense of self-preservation? Then we will have to hit a group of targets in a number of countries to bring those who have lost their senses back to their senses.
It’s a morally frightening choice – we would be using God’s weapon and condemning ourselves to great spiritual loss. But if this is not done, not only may Russia perish, but most likely the whole of human civilization will end.
We will have to make this choice ourselves. Even friends and sympathizers will not support it at first. If I were Chinese, I would not want an abrupt and decisive end to the conflict, because it will draw back US forces and allow them to gather forces for a decisive battle – either directly or, in the best Sun Tzu tradition, by forcing the enemy to retreat without a fight. As a Chinese person, I would also oppose the use of nuclear weapons because taking the confrontation to the nuclear level means moving to an area where my country is still weak.
Also, decisive action is not in line with the Chinese foreign policy philosophy, which emphasizes economic factors (with the accumulation of military power) and avoids direct confrontation. I would support an ally by providing him with rear cover, but I would go behind his back and not enter the fray. (In this case, perhaps I don’t understand this philosophy well enough and am attributing motives to my Chinese friends that are not their own.) If Russia uses nuclear weapons, Beijing would condemn it. But Chinese hearts would also rejoice knowing that the reputation and position of the US had been dealt a severe blow.
How would we react if (God forbid!) Pakistan attacked India, or vice versa? We’d be horrified. Upset that the nuclear taboo has been broken. Then let us help the victims and change our nuclear doctrine accordingly.
For India and other countries of the world majority, including nuclear weapon states (Pakistan, Israel), the use of nuclear weapons is unacceptable, both for moral and geostrategic reasons. If they are used “successfully”, the nuclear taboo – the notion that such weapons should never be used and that their use is a direct route to nuclear Armageddon – will be devalued. We are unlikely to win support quickly, even if many in the Global South would feel satisfaction at the defeat of their former oppressors who plundered them, carried out genocides and imposed an alien culture.
But in the end, the victors are not judged. And the saviors are thanked. Western European political culture does not remember, but the rest of the world does (and with gratitude) how we helped the Chinese to free themselves from the brutal Japanese occupation, and many Western colonies to throw off the colonial yoke.
Of course, if they do not understand us at first, they will have all the more incentive to educate themselves. Still, it is very likely that we can win, and focus the minds enemy states without extreme measures, and force them to retreat. And after a few years, we take take up a position as China’s rear, as it is now performing for us, supporting it in its struggle with the US. Then this fight can be avoided without a big war. And we will win together for the good of all, including the people of the Western countries.
At that stage, Russia and the rest of humanity will pass through all the thorns and traumas into the future, which I see as bright – multipolar, multicultural, multicolored – and giving countries and peoples the opportunity to build their own destinies in addition to the common one, which should unite worldwide.
Americans Can’t Believe What China is Doing to US Farms
(IP)- With 6 new countries joining the BRICS, these 11 countries will create a new grouping at the global level.
The 15th BRICS summit was held last week in the Sandton district of Johannesburg in South Africa. In a joint press conference with the leaders of Russia, China, Brazil, and India, the President of South Africa announced the agreement of the BRICS with Iran, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Ethiopia joining this group. 6 new members will officially join this group at the beginning of 2024. Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, Argentina, and United Arab Emirates. After this event, various comments regarding the position of BRICS at the global level were raised.
One of the views is that with the joining of 6 new countries, each of which is of great economic and political importance, the BRICS can create a new polarization at the level of the global system. The main reason for such a view is that the old and new BRICS members have a large share of the world economy on the one hand and are against the unilateralist political order in the world system on the other hand. Salem Nasser, an international law expert at Brazil’s FGV Direito SP University, says the requests to join BRICS show that there are constant changes in the global balance of power.
BRICS is a new pole of economic and political power that will compete with the hegemony of North America. Mehmet Ali Guller, a Turkish analyst, also believes that BRICS is one of the most important pillars of the new world order and has dealt a heavy blow to the US energy-political powerhouse.
Another issue is that BRICS members, both former and new members, can make important decisions in the economic field at the global level. This influence will be especially high in the field of energy because Saudi Arabia, Russia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the UAE are among the largest oil-producing countries in the world. The alignment or shared opinion of these countries in the field of energy can have many consequences for Western countries and affect the global economy as well. Also, the expansion of BRICS will increase the share of this group in global exports from 20.2% to 25.1%. Global banking group “Goldman Sachs” believes that by 2050 the economy of the BRICS countries will compete with the economies of the richest countries in the world.
Another important point is that BRICS can be a serious competitor for the Group of 7 (including the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom). With 6 new countries joining the BRICS group, Russian news agencies wrote in a statistical analysis that the total gross domestic product (GDP) of developed BRICS will be approximately 65 trillion dollars in terms of purchasing power parity. In this way, the share of this group in the global GDP will increase from the current 31.5% to 37%. Meanwhile, the share of the Group of Seven advanced economies is currently around 29.9%. Meanwhile, the 11 countries of the BRICS will have an area of 48.5 million square kilometers, which is 36% of the world’s area, and this figure is more than double that of the Group of Seven. Their total population will reach 3.6 billion people, which is 45% of the entire world and more than four times higher than the group of seven.
By: Seyed Razi Emadi
The Sopranos – Ralph Gets Passed Over
Ralph Cifaretto gets passed over as capo of the Aprile crew. Tony makes less qualified solider Gigi Cestone the new captain. One of the reasons being Ralph took Jackie Jr on a pick up that turned violent.
The Chinese’s arrogance frequently works well on South East Asians in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand. Why can’t the Chinese’s arrogance work in South Korea and Japan?
It’s you again, Charlotte, that sick puppy.
I am from Taiwan, so I am observing you and your masturbative questions more from the sideline in amusement, but I can’t help providing some insight here to address all your diarrhea at a fundamental level. Given the intelligence, or lack thereof, displayed in your questions, I am not sure you would understand what I have to say below. In any case, this answer is for whatever audience can understand it.
All your questions amount to a basic theme, namely, some aspect of China deemed unappealing to your personal bias, which translates into inferiority of China vis-à-vis Japan or South Korea, which you consider yourself a proud member of, despite dubious credential to claim either ownership of or contribution toward such credentials.
I would like to crush your pitiful self-loathing complex with the bottom line, independent of whether your personal bias is justified, or whether you yourself are entitled to such sense of superiority as a member of the group you are hiding under.
Let’s assume all your personal biases are justified, a Big IF, and let’s assume you yourself indeed are entitled to your claims. Under these Big IFs, that would amount to the following picture.
- China is like a wolf in the wild, being its own Master. It may be dirty (your personal bias) and rude (your bias) and ugly (your bias) and uncivilized (your bias), and it may not know a lot of fancy tricks to hunt and eat its catch elegantly (your bias). It nonetheless goes wherever it pleases whenever it pleases, and does whatever it pleases, beholden to no one. It is nobody’s slave.
- Japan and South Korea are like two pedigree dogs groomed in the most fancy and elegant (your bias) beauty parlors and having the most advanced suite of plastic surgery done on them like the wife of the South Korean president. They look totally beautiful (your bias) and well-mannered (your bias). But they are two slave dogs kneeling under their Master’s feet, living off the craps thrown at them, with their necks held in leash in the hands of their Master. The Master can kick the shit out of their face whenever the Master feels like it, make them eat shit whenever the Master is not in a good mood, and make them lick the Master’s ass whenever the Master wants to remind them who the Boss is.
So this is the real picture of China vis-à-vis Japan and South Korea.
And it is based on facts, with no room for personal bias, because this is in plain sight for everyone to see.
Some people prefer to be the dirty, ugly wolf of the wild, and some people prefer to be the beautiful, elegant slave dog in chains, and be proud of it. It is a matter of personal choice. Everyone is free to choose according to his own personal inclination and character. We know what your choice is and what you are proud of.
See, I am from Taiwan, and I am never as presumptuous and audacious as you are to make similar remarks as you do about China vs Taiwan, maybe because I have more savvy, because Taiwan is just another slave dog like Japan and South Korea, and I don’t want to make stupid remarks to make a fool of myself as you did.
That’s all. Now go on brandishing your diamond studded dog chain to taunt that ugly wolf of the wild.
A Significant Turning Point in History | Paul Craig Roberts
“I am puzzled how such a rational and humane person as Dr Paul Craig Roberts is allowed to publicly express his rational, non-propagandized opinions so openly without facing all the usual impediments. A very fine spokesman for international and economic affairs.”
What 10 things have you stopped doing in your life?
- I stopped trying to convince others of joining activities I want to do but they don’t and rather do them by myself. If they want to join, that’s fantastic but I am not using up energy to get others out of their own inertia.
- I stopped buying snacks because realized that if I don’t have them at home, the inconvenience of having to go out and buy them when I get the cravings often prevents me from eating stuff that isn’t good for me.
- I stopped badmouthing others because I realized that even though it is a quick emotional relief, it undermines my relationships in the long run.
- I stopped smoking because I realized I only did it to deal with boredom and so when I fixed boredom I fixed my urge for cigarettes. Now, instead of a pack of cigarettes, I grab my guitar.
- I stopped trying to hide my flaws because I realized that if there is nothing to hide there is nothing to be insecure about.
- I stopped worrying about what strangers think of me because I realized that they are busy thinking about themselves and their own problems. Now I just worry about what my friends and family think of me.
- I stopped eating meals hot and fast because my digestion deals better with lukewarm and slow.
- I stopped judging others for having different views on how to live life because I realized all our experiences of life are different we are all just trying to get by as best as we can.
- I stopped watching porn regularly because I realized that it warped my expectations of what healthy and fulfilling sexuality means in real life.
- I stopped being so sure I’m right in an argument because in the past, it often turned out I was wrong no matter how convinced I was of being right.
And I feel like I’m a much happier and better person because I stopped all that stuff.
An Empty World, A Time Traveler, Another Dimension | Liminal Spaces: The Reality In-between
In the past year or so, three internet mysteries popped up that really got my attention.
They may seem very different, but trust me, they’re connected.
The first one is about a girl who found a door in the basement of her AirBnB. She opened it and inside was an abandoned shopping mall. The second story is about Javier aka Unico Sobreviviente, who woke up in a hospital in the year 2027, in an alternate universe.
In his version of the future — everyone on earth has vanished. He’s the only one left, and he has video to prove it. The third mystery is known as the Backdoors. A reality adjacent to ours that, if the conditions are just right, you can accidentally slip into.
Then you find yourself lost in an endless maze of dingy carpet, fluorescent light, and yellow wallpaper.
And around every corner–
Has the launch of the Huawei Mate 60 Pro with a 5G Kirin 9000s processor signified a failure on the part of the US in its trade war against China?
Worse.
If the specs are confirmed, it spells a huge downturn for one name.
QUALCOMM.
There are many firsts in the Mate 60 Pro, selling for less than $1,000 dollars, a bargain in the premium handset segment today.
First, there is a custom GPU in the SOC, and that means the Kirin is even more inhouse than Apple’s A-series chipset.
Why?
It has an inhouse 5G modem. Apple with its hundreds billion war-chest has been unable to crack Qualcomm’s patent wall on this particular piece of technology, but it appears Huawei has.
If Huawei makes the design available to Chinese handset makers, we can say goodbye to Qualcomm and Snapdragon, where volume sale is concerned. That or a fierce price war ensue. We will see.
…
Second, the Mate 60 Pro can make satellite calls, while industry leaders external to China are only adding texting/emergency signals via satellite. That’s a killer feature for blindspot coverage in China’s vast countryside.
As a reminder, a modern satellite phone looks like a “walkie talkie”. Yup, walkie-talkie size, only with an unsightly antennae.
But the Mate 60 pro, all of 9mm thick and looking like it came out of the future.
…
Three, this runs Hongmeng 4.0, a mature OS that’s designed from the ground up to take full advantage of the IOT ecosystem. For example, Android auto exists as an app, but Hongmeng’s vehicular integration is baked in. Chinese handset makers will increasingly jump onto the Hongmeng bandwagon to hedge against a repeat of Huawei’s booting by Google on “national security concerns”.
My mainland friends have high praise for Huawei’s OS, and these are guys who own multiple handsets, including Apple.
…
Four, it is AI-assisted, with Huawei’s own large language model Pangu built in. That’s a step (or several) ahead of Android and iOS.
I expect this phone to sell out.
This phone runs with the best in class. But it cannot be sanctioned.
Let me repeat.
THIS PHONE IS SANCTION-PROOF.
Not by Google.
Not by TSMC.
Not by any western semiconductor toolermaker.
Not by any Taiwanese/Korean/Japanese/American component or materials supplier.
Not through application of American patent rights.
No other handset manufacturer can boast such an achievement. American IP-Free at the cutting edge is a historic first.
I’ll end with a short note on the significance of the Mate 60 Pro’s announcement, an earth-shattering injection into the news cycle around Gina’s visit.
Let me explain.
The comprehensive sanctions on Huawei severed its dependence on foreign suppliers vulnerable to US sanction, and forced Huawei to create a domestic-only supply chain that could afford sanction without losing their livelihood.
The existence of this completely independent supply chain (not yet complete), which includes Swift-free financing, is a nightmare for Gina and Co., because she won’t have birds-eye view data on Huawei developments, other than resorting to humint and hacking.
American corporations in a completely separate eco-system will be similarly disadvantaged.
China though, remains fully in the game, since all players are represented in the domestic supply chain.
Gina and American corporations will have to fight Huawei (and Chinese high-tech) with the fog of war turned on.
Best of all, this is a problem created by America, for America.
Suck on it…idiots.
Tony contemplates ‘whacking’ Paulie
Paulie repeatedly denies telling Johnny Sack about Ralph Ciparetto’s joke about Ginny Sack.
Have you ever found out your kid wasn’t yours by getting a paternity test? If so, what did you do and did you stay in the child’s life?
Happened to a guy I worked with. There was a rocky period in his marriage prior to the pregnancy and the wife had an affair. At some point afterwards it became obvious that the child was not his.
His take on it? He told me, “There is an old English saying, ‘Whosoever bulleth my cow, the calf is mine’”.
He gave it a lot of thought, realized both he and his wife had been at fault, but if they broke up over this situation he’d lose his biological children and his life would be a mess. So he left his name on the birth certificate as the father and he said he would raise the little boy as his own, no different than his other kids. His older kids had no idea what the situation was. He’d made up with his wife and he wasn’t going to destroy everyone’s life over the DNA of this one little child. He said to him it was no different than if they had adopted or had use donor sperm, they were family and the little boy was his son. He kept his ego out of it and moved on.
I was left wondering how many men would do that. I suspect not many.
Huawei’s Astonishing News Breaks: 310.9 Billion Yuan Revenue, 700 Million Devices
Huawei has firmly confronted the four rounds of regulations imposed by the United States and fully engaged in independent research and development.
It has successively created the HarmonyOS, EulerOS, and MateERP systems, among others, to meet Huawei’s business development needs.
Amidst great anticipation, Huawei suddenly released news and announced the long-awaited results.
In the first half of the year, Huawei achieved a revenue of 310.9 billion yuan, and the number of devices in the HarmonyOS ecosystem exceeded 700 million.
With cutting-edge core technologies and leading advantages in the industry, Huawei possesses top-notch expertise in communication, chips, operating systems, artificial intelligence, and other fields.
What should I do if my neighbor’s driveway is blocked so she decides to park her car in front of my driveway & blocks it? She does this so her car will stay close to her home.
I did actually walk over to her house and asked for the car to be removed. I also told her I had to go to a doctor’s appointment. This is actually what happened and the vehicle was not moved. I called the local deputy station and for a tow truck. She got her vehicle towed and a ticket. Two days later she came over to my house cursing me and making threats. Congratulations, I called a deputy again to come out and explained to him and a friend of mine witnessed what she did. She was taken away in his vehicle.
She was a very entitled person that thought she could do just anything she wanted to do. Keeping me away from my chemotherapy appointment really was the last straw for me.
Jimmy Meets Gus | Better Call Saul
As Jimmy (Bob Odenkirk) is helping Mike (Jonathan Banks) to discover who is following him, he bumps into the iconic owner of Los Pollos Hermanos, Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito).
Why does Modi look uncomfortable at the BRICS summit?
Things are moving very fast as far as BRICS is concerned
Modi had a good US visit and showed his friend Biden that he was a friend of democracy and the rules based order
Yet this summit literally saw Russia and China go on a full flow against Western Hegemony and in favor of Expansion
They spoke of a literal alternate system to protect and counter western hegemony
Russia, China were fully on board and South Africa who were already pretty pissed off about the ICJ warrant against Putin and being forced to look weak, jumped on the bandwagon
Brazil shrugged and decided to change their mind
So Modi had to watch as BRICS expanded openly and set a tone that would slowly involve an escape from western hegemony
He looked very uncomfortable during this summit
Like in a Hypnotic Daze
Modi is caught between a rock and a hard place
He needs Russia badly. If he is asked to pay market price for Oil which is rising now and could reach $ 115 by December, that would cause economic issues and high inflation right at the time of elections
He needs the West of course because all of Indias reserves and exports depend on their markets
He needs China crucially for his Make in India initiative for the value enhancement of $ 300 Billion of retail value
So like a volleyball, he has to keep being bounced from place to place
China busted another CIA spy, the second arrest in 2 weeks | China Currents
In this episode of China Currents: China busted another CIA spy; BRICS welcomed 6 new members; Japan released nuclear contaminated water into the Pacific.
How was Russia able to destroy a Challenger 2? This is a tank that once tanked (pun intended) 70 RPG’s in one battle.
During the souther Ukraine, near Robotino, a Challenger 2 was destroyed while spear heading an assault. The tank burned out due to being penetrated by a Kornet ATGM according to the Russians in the area. Judging from the video which has already circulated in which the internal fire is visible through the side of the tank. It appears that an ATGM hit the front right side of the hull, and also the side of the turret.
The kornet is 152mm tandem warhead ATGM, developed in the 1990s, it has previously penetrated M1 Abrams tanks in Iraq and Israeli Merkerva in Lebanon. It seems highly likely that this is the responsible ATGM. Though, if the hits as I suspect are on the side of the Challenger 2, basically any ATGM could achieve it.
The idea that the Challenger 2 survives 70 hits from RPGs of any kind anywhere other than a small area on the front, is of course fantasy. Tanks tends to have quite weak side armour, certainly incapable of protecting against direct hits unless the warhead is defective or incredibly old.
“The U.S. & Russia Will Go To War Within A Year!” – Tucker Carlson
During a recent visit to Hungary, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson explained to an audience of Hungarians that the American people are being fed a steady narrative by the mainstream media that Ukraine is winning the war with Russia and all it will take to put the Ukrainians over the top is a few more F-16s. The truth, he noted, is quite the opposite. Guest host Craig “Pasta” Jardula, along with Jimmy Dore and Americans’ Comedian Kurt Metzger, discuss another video in which Carlson predicts the U.S. and Russia will be engaged in a “hot” war within 12 months.
I own my home and I let a friend rent from me for one month and now she won’t leave. She put a restraining order on me. Who gets to stay in my home, me or the roommate?
This happened to me when I let an old friend live in my spare room “just until he could find a job and a place “ of his own.
After ten days it was obvious that he was “secretly” drinking vodka every day and had no intention of finding a job or another place to live.
When he began to verbally abuse me and physically intimidate me ( never hit me, but would block my access to my room, come sit in whatever room I was in and glare at me, bust into my bedroom and lay on my bed and refuse to leave)it got so bad I called the cops to make him leave.
Come to find out, he had been in my house just long enough to claim legal residence.
Which, in Arkansas, where I live, is not very long.
My only recourse, the police said, was to go pay $168 for and eviction notice that would be served by the sheriff.
The whole experience has made me feel very weary of ever letting anyone stay here more than a few days ever again. So, my advice is to look into whether the state you live in will allow for you to have them evicted.
NIGER: MILITARY ORDERS POLICE TO EXPEL FRENCH AMBASSADOR
What’s wrong with these people do they think that they own Africa?
What’s the biggest misconception about getting good at things?
Around age 10, one of my friends suddenly had this new passion for surfing.
We lived in Florida where that was a big thing. His walls were covered in posters. He could name every surfer, as well as the many types of waves. His encyclopedic knowledge of surfing was immensely impressive — until he actually surfed.
I was surprised. He couldn’t even stand up on his board for more than two seconds. And to be fair, neither could I. But I hadn’t spent a mountain of time studying and talking about surfing.
This speaks to a common issue in self-improvement. People read self-help books for hours. They listen to podcasts and attend seminars.
They do all the things except the actual work. Yet by being near the problem, they feel like they are getting things done. This is why blogs with titles such as “tiny habits” are so popular — they imply massive change comes from small increments of effort.
The easiest way to get better is to focus on one simple framework or set of advice. Put that reading time directly into the effort instead. Our brain can’t focus on twenty self-help priorities at once.
It is focused efforts protracted across stretches of time that produce lasting change. In other words, dedication.
China Just SHOCKED Australia With This $100 Billion MEGA Project!
Prepare to be astonished as China unveils its mind-boggling $100 billion MEGA project that has left Australia in awe. Join us in exploring the staggering scale, innovation, and potential impacts of this monumental endeavor. Discover how this project is redefining the landscape of collaboration and development in the region. Subscribe now to witness how China’s audacious vision is making waves on a global scale.
Why do you think parents are leaving public schools?
I can only speak for the situation here in Chicago, where I teach at a private school that has seen an influx of new students in the last five years. Here are the reasons parents here take their children out of public schools and put them into private schools:
- Student discipline. Student behaviors in public schools are out of control. This is, by far, the main reason parents pull their children out of public schools. This is also one of the primary reasons for the teacher shortage in some public schools. Adults don’t want to deal with out of control kids all day, and they especially don’t want their own children in that environment. This is also why people move out of neighborhoods, businesses close, etc… Everyone is just trying to avoid people with anti-social behaviors as much as possible. Prices for real estate and schools both fall in tandem with how much riff-raff you have to deal with in that place. The more you’re paying to be in a place, the less likely you have to deal with shitty behavior from others.
- Smaller class sizes. My largest class this year has 15 students in it. One of my new students told us that her public school class last year had 33 students in it. That’s par for the public schools around here.
- Academic rigor. Because private schools have smaller classes full of relatively well-behaved students, it’s easier for the teachers to challenge each child to their personal level. I’m starting novel groups next week. Some students will be reading a tenth-grade-level novel, while others will be reading an eighth- or sixth- grade level novel. I have the time and experience to teach all three novels at the same time.
- Traditional curriculum. One of the common comments from parents, during our open house, when they see my class sets of novels, is that they appreciate that they recognize most of the titles. I have about 50 novel sets to select from for my novel groups, and about 35 of those are “classics.” That’s what the parents want to see. The other 15 are newer, more high-interest novels, but nothing too edgy.
- Inclusion of religion/morality in the curriculum. Honestly, not too many Catholic school parents care too much about this. It’s just a nice bonus for them. They want their children to be taught the same general morality that the parents have or, at the very least, not be taught something that directly contradicts the parents’ morality or religion.
- Geographical convenience. Sometimes, parents want their child to attend a school that’s closer to the parent’s workplace, or a caretaker’s house, or some place that’s just more convenient logistically. If the public school requires an hour bus ride each direction, and the private school is right across the street from your house, then maybe it’s worth the price, simply for the convenience.
Vinegar Grilled Chicken
Prep: 10 min | Marinate: 4 hr | Cook: 10 min | Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup water
- 1 1/3 cups white wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon fresh-ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons garlic powder
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce or soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon hot sauce
- 3 tablespoons butter, melted, or sesame oil
- 4 (10 ounce) bone-in chicken breast halves
Instructions
- Place the water, vinegar, pepper, salt, Worcestershire or soy sauce, hot sauce and butter or sesame oil into a large, resealable plastic bag. Shake to combine ingredients, then add chicken, seal and shake to coat. Place in refrigerator to marinate for at least 4 hours.
- Heat an outdoor grill* for medium-high heat, and lightly oil the grate.
- Remove chicken from marinade, and shake off excess. Discard remaining marinade.
- Cook on preheated grill until no longer pink in the center; about 10 minutes per side.
Notes
* This cooks beautifully on a George Foreman Grill also.
To make this chicken roadside-style, use boneless chicken tenderloins and brush with barbecue sauce the final minutes of grilling.
Huawei Mate 60 Pro: Game over for US chip sanctions?!
The Washington Post, usually a pretty good barometer of the sentiment on Capitol Hill, opined: “New phone sparks worry China has found a way around U.S. tech limits,” which one analyst described as a slap in the face to Washington.
Much deserved, I say!
Today I will break the situation down in layman’s terms, and we’ll also catch up with US geopolitical analyst Thomas Pauken the Second. This is Reports on China, I’m Andy Boreham in Shanghai. Let’s get reporting!