As a boy, living in Pennsylvania, I possessed the normal (and perhaps natural) brick-a-bract and flotsam and jetsam that accompanies most boys in the 1960’s. Model airplanes. Cubscout uniforms. Bottle collections. Debris that I picked up here and there. Scale models. Baseball playing cards, and the like.

Some of my most prized treasures consisted of my arrowheads… and my Indian-head pennies (and Buffalo Nickels). These were kept in an old Mason Jar on a shelf in my room.

Every now and then I would take them out. I would hold them. Fondle them. Feel the weight of them, and look at the details on them. I would then put them back, and go on with my life.

Eventually I went to university. During that time, my brother was selling odds and ends of mine for money or trade. I started to notice that things were missing, but since I hadn’t been “playing with them” for four years or more, it just didn’t seen significant to me.

…At that time.

…

Tiny treasures. Lost in time.

My unappreciated fragments of my life, discarded by others who cared not for their significance to me personally. They just did not care.

This trend continued throughout my life.

Tiny treasures. Lost in time.

…

Things that were important to me. Things that mattered to me. Things that represented memories, thoughts, ideas, and my personality… discarded by others who did not share my emotions about them.

Tiny treasures. Lost in time.

…

…

Today.

Frozen

Have you actually ever heard someone say ‘Do you know who I am?’ indignantly?

Yes. The first year that they opened Buckingham Palace for tourists, I happened to be in London and got tickets. We had the girls and the wait was long so we walked behind the annex and let them move around. There was a gift shop I bought a catalog from.

When our ticket time was close to the front when we came back. There was a lovely Japanese women who was working the crowds and checking tickets. There was a fiftyish woman who tried to walk by her. She politely asked for her ticket. It if course was for a much later time. I only want to (looks at the catalog) buy one of those. The guide politely refused.

Then it came. She loudly screeches, “Do you know who I am. I am a millionaire in the US.”. I quickly interjected that most of us were at her age. I knew I had to shut her down before she got going and the guide was terrified she was so antagonistic. “Luckily you do not need to go in there if all you want is the guide and told her where to buy one.” She of course stormed off. I apologized for my fellow countrywoman. I told her you have to nip them in the Bud or you have an incident. The philosophy is to create such a scuffle you let them through. That is not wise when other people are waiting in long cues. Could not believe it.

What’s something a flight attendant did to you that you will never forget?

I was on a flight to Mexico City, my daughter and I were sitting in business class. My daughter was 6 then and she was reading a kids book, the flight attendant started talking to her since her niece read the same books.

She was nice and asked for a pic with my daughter and the book etc. When we deplaned, I forgot my ipad on the back of the front seat. I didn’t realize that until 5 hours later which was the time of our layover so I only realized it when I had to go through the security point again.

I went to lost and found and they had nothing, I called American Airlines and they had nothing. Then one day later I got a phone call from the flight attendant telling me she had my ipad.

The passenger on the return flight found it and gave it to her. She should have turned it into security, but she knew if she did that I would not see it again, instead she had someone check on my details and get my number so she sent it via FedEx to me and made sure I got it when I was back in Miami.

My daughter chose a nice art craft thing in Oaxaca and we sent it to her as a token of appreciation. She went out of her way to make sure I got my ipad returned to me and for that I will always be grateful.

Edit 1: Thanks all for you nice comments and upvotes, even to the skeptics that thought this didn’t happen. Trust me it did. Thanks!

This is DISGUSTING and Biden is about to sign it into law

What is the rudest thing you have ever done that you are glad you went through with?

My brother called me to let me know our dad was in the ER and it didn’t look good for his survival. I drove like a bat out of hell the 120 miles to get there. In the ER waiting room sat my brother & his wife, who knew nothing and had not been given any info or updates on our dad in over 2.5 hours.

I went up to the admitting desk to ask for an update and was told to sit down…that the clerk at the desk was busy and couldn’t deal with me. Unacceptable response so I just marched into the actual ER room to find my dad. Brother and SIL followed.

Found my dad and he is basically gray with no one attending him. The attending comes up to me and starts screaming at me. I asked him what was wrong with my dad, (who has a heart problem and has a pacemaker). The Dr responds in a horrible accent and terrible English that my dad has vertigo. It took several tries to figure out what he was saying and even the nurses were having a problem understanding him.

I lost it and didn’t care if I got arrested or not. I loudly proceed to tell the Dr that my dad is gray, not green, indicating heart problem & that my dad had his last heart surgery at this hospital 1 year prior. That I want a heart monitor on my dad ASAP.

The smug Dr asked me where I my medical degree. I smiled and again, loudly said that I didn’t have one but that I had a law degree. That I hoped he enjoyed his sojourn in the US because by the time I’m done suing him, deportation will look like a good option.

He quickly put on a heart monitor on my dad and it showed my dad was having a heart attack as they attached it. Luckily, they were able to treat him and he lived many years after that.

3 things:

1. This was at a top nationally ranked hospital
2. I filed a complaint with the BoD and the Dr was let go due to his repeated negligence.
3. I was bluffing — I don’t have a law degree!

Respect is earned not demanded

Grilled Peanut Butter Sandwiches

Ingredients

• Peanut butter
• Sliced bread
• Butter
• Chocolate chips (optional)

Instructions

1. Spread peanut butter on one piece of bread and put another slice on top to make a sandwich.
2. Butter the outsides and cook on skillet until golden brown.
3. Flip and cook the other side.

Notes

Chocolate chips can be added to the peanut butter if desired.

What was the most memorable thing a patient has said while drifting into sleep under anesthesia?

I knew a girl who had this happen to her:

This girl had to have surgery, it was her 9th but 7 of the surgeries were done when she was a baby (all by the same surgeon). She has these tubes called shunts that drain the excess fluid from her skull to treat a condition called Hydrocephalus. Well after she went into the ER with abdominal pain (she had appendicitis) they checked her shunts to make sure they weren’t what was causing the pain. They were working but unfortunately one of them needed to be fixed later because it was disconnected. (Her neck muscles kept the space open to let fluid out.)

A few months later she returned to the surgeon who had done those 7 surgeries (she sees him every year for a checkup) and surgery was scheduled.

The day of the surgery arrived. She checked into the hospital with her parents and was wheeled back to the OR. The anesthesiologist told her to breathe in the laughing gas. He asked if it was working. She said “No…no…no-yes! Yes! Yes!” As she said that she began to lose consciousness which frightened her so she began to cry out “I’m scared! I’m scared! I don’t wanna die! I don’t wanna die!” The anesthesiologist removed the mask and said “It’s ok, you’re ok, you’re not going to die.” But she was still crying and scared.

To try to soothe her, her neurosurgeon came to her side and said, “Hey, why can’t dinosaurs talk?”

“Why?” She asked

“Because they’re dead!” She burst out laughing and passed out.

She woke up perfectly calm and not the least bit anxious.

How do I know this story?… That girl… is me.

*Drops mic. Walks away*

In all seriousness though, I remember every detail of that. It was very scary. I later told my surgeon that I remembered all of this by saying, “Hey I have a joke for you!”

He asked “Is it about dinosaurs?”

“…yes.” I said smiling sheepishly.

“I fell unconscious really quickly.”

“That would be the propofol. Either that or you were so tired of my bad jokes that you passed out.”

I laughed “Maybe.” I said.

So there’s my weird story! I hope you liked it!

(I’m ok by the way. My post op appointment is on the 15th.) I’ll update on Monday if you guys want, let me know in the comments!

Update:

I had my pst op appointment today. Everything went well.

I was waiting in an exam room with my dad when my neurosurgeon popped his head in the door and said he’d be in in a few minutes and asked if I was behaving myself. (He was kidding of course as I was just sitting there.)

A little while later he came back and asked how I was doing. I said I was doing well, he examined my scar, and said that other than a large amount of scabing (which will eventually come off) everything looked good. He instructed us to come back in 6 months and asked what I planned to do over the summer.

We shook hands and then I headed back to school.

Are all men a 10?

This is How Delusional Modern Women have Become ft.

What is the strangest court case you’ve come across?

Florida has a strange social dichotomy.

As you drive through the state, you’ll see a pattern of strip clubs and adult cinemas sandwiched between churches, Jesus billboards, and gruesome pro-life medical photos.

It feels like the state can’t make up its mind on what it wants to be. Consequently, our cities have super strange laws and weird rules around adult entertainment.

For example, in Tampa, you can’t drink alcohol at a fully nude strip club. Yet if the dancers have (tiny) tape over their nipples and crotch, you are free to drink your face off.

In 1983, it was even stricter, with a full anti-nudity ordinance in place.

Someone went to an exotic club and then filed a complaint about strippers showing too much skin. Which invites the question, “Why are you even going to the club and getting mad about what you paid for?”

In reality — it was probably part of an investigation, reserved for a few senior police officers who went “undercover”. I’m sure they enjoyed the investigation very, very much.

Three exotic dancers were dragged into court and put on trial for indecency.

The actual court case

The women weren’t even dancing nude. They were wearing crop tops and tight, short shorts while dancing on tables. Their underwear was visible.

A freelance photographer, Jim Damaske, was given a call by legal aid, “You might want to stop by this trial on Tuesday. You’ll be able to capture a very unique shot.”

The photographer wasn’t disappointed. The below photo was part of the trial and evidence. It was not a stunt intended to disrespect the judge:

The 20-year-old dancer was trying to show that her underwear wasn’t too revealing.

The decency law stated that underwear could not substantively reveal a woman’s privates, including highlighting any lines or curvatures of her lady parts.

Initially, the lawyer for the three dancers suggested the women would be happy to dance in the courtroom in their work attire — as a form of evidence. Judge David Demers ruled this was too much. He was also apprehensive about the defendants bending over in court.

Judge Demers had only been elected 4 months prior and worried about compromising his position as judge.

The defense lawyer suggested that the women could bend over at their law firm, photos could be taken, and brought into court. Judge Demers insisted it would need to take place in court in order to count.

The women did not see this case as a joke.

Indecent exposure can bring a large fine and up to a month in prison. Typically, the law would apply to someone running around naked in public. Or, if a man stands in his home and presses his junk up against a window towards the street — that would count as well.

Three decades later, the judge was interviewed about the bizarre scene.

He is aware he’ll always be remembered for the photo.

He said that when they took the photo, “I looked at the girl and thought, whatever happens, I shouldn’t have any facial expression. Don’t smile, don’t frown. Do nothing. Because whatever it is, it will be misinterpreted.”

“When you look at the photo,” said Demers, “my face is as blank as possible — and that was pretty deliberate.”

Why even sue dancers?

This was likely a moral crusade of a district attorney or other official with strong conservative convictions.

It failed.

The women won their case.

The photo was so compelling that Playboy magazine featured it in their photos of the year collection. Also, I have to mention — look at the stenographer’s face:

She’s thinking, “What sort of bizarro land career have I taken up?” And then, she has to decide what exactly she will write to document this event in court.

I also couldn’t help but wonder if the dancer was making eye contact with the judge. And was she smiling?

In all seriousness — this case was yet another example of my local tax dollars going to a grotesque waste. Tampa Bay has all manner of crime issues and our legal system is prosecuting strippers for stripping.

We have more strip clubs per square mile in Tampa Bay than any city except Las Vegas. The adult industry generates huge, huge revenue for our city, and stuffy politicians can’t stand it — unless they are the one getting the lap dance.

I’m proud to be American but we are the epitome of hypocrisy. We do so much moral posturing and pass stupid indecency laws — while also hosting the largest pornography industry in the world.

Or perhaps this is right on brand with being American. We only operate in opposing extremes. We are both the most brilliant and stupid people you will ever meet.

She’s a 8?

How did the Romans deal with infected blade cuts? Did they use worms like in the movie Gladiator?

You might think that the ancient Romans were clueless about medicine and hygiene, and that they just let their wounds fester and rot. Well, you’d be wrong. The Romans actually had some pretty advanced techniques and knowledge for their time. They were not afraid to cut, stitch, and cauterize wounds, and they used various substances to clean and heal them. They were not barbarians, after all. They were civilized people who built roads, aqueducts, and colosseums.

One of the things they used to treat wounds was opium. Yes, you heard that right. Opium, the stuff that makes you high and addicted. The Romans knew that opium had pain-relieving properties, and they used it to numb the pain of surgery and injuries. They also used scopolamine, a plant extract that causes drowsiness and amnesia. They would mix these substances with wine and give them to the patients before operating on them. This was their version of anesthesia. Not bad, huh?

Another thing they used was vinegar. Vinegar is a type of acid that kills bacteria and fungi. The Romans would soak a cloth in vinegar and apply it to the wound. This would disinfect the wound and prevent infection. They also used honey, wine, and olive oil as antiseptics. These substances have natural antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties, and they also help keep the wound moist and promote healing. They would mix them together and apply them to the wound, or use them separately. They were like the original Neosporin. 😁

Now, you might be wondering, did they use worms like in the movie Gladiator? The answer is no. They did not use worms to treat wounds. That was a Hollywood invention, not a historical fact. The movie Gladiator is a great film, but it’s not very accurate when it comes to depicting ancient Rome. It’s full of anachronisms, errors, and exaggerations. For example, the gladiator fights were not as brutal and bloody as they are shown in the movie. Most of the time, the gladiators did not fight to the death, but to the first blood or surrender. They were valuable assets, not disposable slaves. And the emperor did not sit in a box and give thumbs up or down to decide their fate. That was a later invention, too. 🙄

The use of worms to treat wounds is actually a modern practice, not an ancient one. It dates back to the American Civil War, when some doctors noticed that soldiers who had maggots in their wounds healed faster and better than those who did not. They realized that the maggots ate the dead and infected tissue, leaving the healthy tissue intact. They also secreted substances that killed bacteria and stimulated healing. This was called maggot therapy, and it was used until the discovery of antibiotics. Nowadays, it’s still used in some cases, especially when antibiotics are ineffective or unavailable. It’s not as gross as it sounds, trust me.

This is How Unattainable the 1% MAN is For Women

The Boiling Hot End to a Cook Accused of Poison in Henry VIII’s England

On April 5, 1531, hardened London spectators of public punishment gathered at Smithfield, joined by others who were too curious to stay away. An execution had been announced of a type that none had witnessed in their lifetimes, nor ever heard of.  The condemned man, Richard Roose, was to be boiled alive.

Roose was not the sort of criminal that usually met his end at Smithfield, located just beyond the London Wall. He was convicted of high treason, yet he had not sought to harm King Henry VIII nor his queen, Catherine of Aragon, nor any royal councilor. He had not tried to overthrow the kingdom’s government. Roose, a cook, was accused of murder by poison.

His two victims were an obscure gentleman in the household of Bishop John Fisher, Bennet Curwen, and a destitute widow who accepted the bishop’s charity, Alyce Tryppytt. The target of the poisoning was assumed to be Fisher himself, the Bishop of Rochester. Ironically, Fisher did not eat the soup—sometimes described as porridge—that Roose prepared and so was unharmed.

Roose admitted to the poisoning but claimed it was a joke gone wrong, an accident.  There is no testimony for us to examine, because Roose had no trial, by command of the king.

In the words of the Greyfriars Chronicle of London, a contemporary document: “This year was a cook boiled in a cauldron in Smithfield for he would have poisoned the bishop of Rochester Fisher with divers of his servants and he was locked in a chain and pulled up and down with a gibbet at divers times until he was dead.”

Roose’s crime, the legal method of his condemnation, and finally the form of punishment create a bizarre chain of events that, in a more modern age, might well have raised questions of motive in several parties, including that of Henry VIII. Although there is no question of who did the killing, this is still a tantalizing Tudor murder mystery, and reveals some of the peculiarities of the early modern age, when laws existed and homicide was considered a heinous crime, but there was no trained police force nor forensic science.

Why did Henry VIII demand this punishment of a lowly cook? Why was Roose executed as a traitor when his crime was murder of commoners? The answer lies in the King’s complex feelings for Bishop Fisher.

John Fisher was made bishop of Rochester by the King’s father, Henry VII, in 1504. Fisher performed the funeral services for Margaret Beaufort, the king’s mother, and Henry VII himself when they died, within months of each other, in 1509. In the first 20 years of the reign of Henry VIII, Fisher was considered “the greatest Catholic theologian in Europe, without any rival,” writes Eamon Duffy.

But by the time of the crime in question, King Henry was no longer proud of Bishop Fisher, 62 years of age. It would be safe to say he considered him an enemy. And it would have made the King’s life much easier if Fisher had lost his—if he had consumed the soup.

In 1527, when Henry VIII, desperate for a male heir, began his public quest for an annulment from 42-year-old Catherine of Aragon to marry the delectable young Anne Boleyn, Fisher became one of his most serious obstacles. The question of the royal marriage was a theological one, and if Europe’s most respected theologian had agreed in the rightness of King Henry’s cause, it would have done a lot to bring about the annulment. But Fisher took the side of Catherine of Aragon. The marriage was legal and could not be dissolved.

In 1529, Bishop Fisher announced at the trial of the royal marriage that it would impossible to die more gloriously than in the cause of marriage, as John the Baptist did. In that same year, when a proposal came to Parliament to dissolve the smaller abbeys—the beginning of Henry VIII’s destruction of the Catholic monasteries—Fisher “openly resisted it with all the force he could.”

Enter one Richard Roose. One of Fisher’s earliest biographers, Richard Hall, wrote in 1655 the most complete account of the poisoning. He is the only source to say that Roose was not the chief cook in Fisher’s household, which is significant: “After this the Bishop escaped a very great danger. For one Richard Rose came into the Bishop’s kitchen, being acquainted with the cook, at his house in Lambeth-marsh, and having provided a quantity of deadly poison, while the cook went into the buttery to fetch him some drink, he took his opportunity to throw that poison into a mess of gruel, which was prepared for the Bishop’s dinner. And after he had waited there a while, he went on his way.

“But so it happened that when the Bishop was called into his dinner, he had no appetite for any meat but wished his servants to fall to and be of good cheer, and that he would not eat till toward night. And they that did eat of the poisoned dish were miserably infected. And whereof one gentleman, named Mr. Bennet Curwen and an old widow, died suddenly, and the rest never recovered their health till their dying day.”

An inquiry began at once. Although a salaried police force did not yet exist in England, criminal investigation was taken seriously. Justices of the peace, appointed by the monarch, received and investigated complaints; coroners viewed dead bodies and ordered arrests. Now if a suspect was bound over for trial, freedom was unlikely. Defendants charged with felonies or treason did not exist. In fact, murder trials rarely lasted more than 15 minutes.

Roose was soon apprehended, and admitted to adding what he believed were laxatives to the soup as a “jest.” No one believed him. The always skeptical Imperial ambassador Eustace Chapuys wrote a slightly different version of events to his master, Charles V, the nephew of Catherine of Aragon:

“They say that the cook, having been immediately arrested… confessed at once that he had actually put into the broth some powders, which he had been given to understand would only make his fellow servants very sick without endangering their lives or doing them any harm. I have not yet been able to understand who it was who gave the cook such advice, nor for what purpose.”

We share Chapuys’ frustration. Who gave the cook these powders and told him that they would sicken and not kill anyone? If that information was obtained, it was not shared with the public. No transparency.

Sir Thomas More, the lord chancellor, informed Henry VIII that there were rumors that Anne Boleyn and her father and brother, Thomas and George Boleyn, were involved in the poisoning attempt. The king reacted angrily, saying Anne Boleyn was unfairly blamed for everything, including bad weather.

The murder motive and the question of a larger plot were soon obscured by Henry VIII’s drastic actions. He decided that Roose should be condemned by attainder without a trial—a measure usually used for criminals who were at large. Roose was sitting in prison! Nonetheless, Parliament passed “An Acte for Poysoning,” making willful murder by means of poison high treason even if the victim was not head of the government of the land. And boiling to death became a form of legal capital punishment. This crime was especially heinous, the king’s representatives said, and thus called for such measures.

Several biographers have noted King Henry’s extreme fear of poison. Although the monarch’s paranoia became infamous in later years, there was some basis for concern. Everyone had heard the stories of murder by cantarella in Rome during the time of the Borgias. Pope Alexander VI, Rodrigo Borgia, died—perhaps of poison slipped into his food at a banquet—during the reign of Henry VII. Cantarella was believed to have been arsenic trioxide.

If poison was ever suspected as the cause of death at this time in England, there was no way to scrutinize its damage within the corpse to confirm. And should the poison itself be obtained, the field of analytical chemistry was four centuries away.

Not surprisingly, rumors ran wild. Poisoning was rumored (never proven) to be the cause of the deaths of Queen Anne, Richard III’s wife; the eventual death of Catherine of Aragon; and the agonizing death of Henry’s son, Edward VI. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, written in the reign of Henry’s daughter, Queen Elizabeth I, employed poison. Shakespeare wove it into five other plays too.

But there was more to this than royal terror of a poisoned dish. As historian K.J. Kesselring wrote in The English Historical Review, “This may explain the severe, exemplary punishment of boiling, but not the need to label the offense treason.”

In April the crowds of Smithfield witnessed Roose’s death. According to an eyewitness: “He roared mighty loud, and divers women who were big with child did feel sick at the sight of what they saw, and were carried away half dead; and other men and women did not seem frightened by the boiling alive, but would prefer to see the headsman at his work.”

The story of the king and the stubborn bishop doesn’t end there.

When, after the king married Anne Boleyn, Bishop Fisher refused to swear an oath of supremacy to the king, he was arrested. The pope made Fisher a cardinal to protect him, but it only enraged the king more. Once the monarch had ordered a savage punishment of the man who tried to kill Fisher, and now Henry VIII wanted Fisher gone.

After a difficult imprisonment, Fisher was beheaded on June 22, 1535 on Tower Hill. The crowd gasped when they saw him on the scaffold for he was “nothing…but skin and bones…the flesh clean wasted away, and a very image of death.” In his speech to the crowd, Fisher is said to have shown a calm dignity.

According to Fisher’s biographer: “And here I cannot omit to declare to you the miraculous sight of his head, which after 14 days grew fresher and fresher, for that in his lifetime he never looked so well…. the face looked as if it beholdeth the people passing by and would have spoken to them. Which many took as a miracle.”

In 1886, the Catholic Church made John Fisher a saint.

How to Build a Working UFO | Alien Reproduction Vehicles (ARVs)

What has an employee said that immediately caused you to fire them?

Monday morning and it’s cold and raining. I had asked everyone to be in an hour early because we were getting an early delivery of concrete. Three of my most trusted employees made it in like I asked. Although, a little hungover from the night before, at least they were present. Now Tony the fourth guy I have on my payroll was nowhere to be seen. I kind of half expected it. I could never rely on him, but this was the final straw. I ring him up and the phone rings out. I try him again and he picks up. At first he doesn’t say anything, then suddenly I hear sobbing down the phone. “Is everything alright,” I asked feeling a little concerned for him. I hear sounds of dry heaving over the phone. “I’m sick. I so bloody sick. He continued to repeat how sick he was in between inconsolable crying. I was beginning to feel bad for him. “Jesus Tony, you sound awful, how sick are you?” I asked. There was a momentary pause over the phone. “Well boss, I woke up naked from a heavy night drinking and my sister is in bed beside me.

He is now an ex employee.

Be a job recruiter

What is the most outrageous “fee” you’ve ever been charged?

Ah airlines!

Gotta luv them.

I was traveling overseas. When I do, I have a special little leather bag on a long string that’s just the right size for my passport, which I never let out of my sight while out of the country. It’s about four inches by five inches by maybe a quarter in thick, if that. Basically flat.

I string it around my neck so I don’t lose the passport. I usually tuck my tickets and ID in there as well because it’s almost impossible to pickpocket.

Flying to Switzerland, I have a small overnight bag and my laptop computer. Woman at the counter says “Whoa there big fella! You have three bags. We have to charge you $100 for the extra bag.”

I stared at her. “What three bags?”

Of course, she pointed at the carryall, the laptop, and then my little passport holder around my neck.

I said “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

She said, “If I can see it, it’s a bag, no matter the size.”

So I stuffed it into my slacks. “Can you see it now?” I asked.

She glowered and said “No.”

I said “Have a nice day.”

What a bunch of tools to consider a passport holder a “bag”.

Police officers, what are some of the most interesting conversations you’ve had with the people you’ve arrested?

I was working a 12 hour shift as a gate guard on a military base. 8 PM to 8 AM, in this case. ’Round about midnight, it got VERY boring, so I came up with all sorts of ways to keep awake and keep moving. I’d tune the radio in my little weather shack to NPR, Go out into the middle of the street, and ‘air-conduct’ the orchestra in my mind. Got pretty good at it, actually.

One night, about 3 AM, a Jeep Cherokee came round the corner onto the base entrance road. I snapped to attention, checking the plates and glancing at the decal on the vehicle. The Base Commander. I gave him my best parade ground salute, and waved him through, but he paused, rolling down his window and staring at me for a few seconds.

“Petty Officer Harrison, what in the name of the Most Holy God were you doing?”

Now, I can imagine it must have looked terribly odd, to see his gate guard waving his arms and poking at invisible things in the dead of night, with classical music blaring in the background. Don’t know what he made of it. Maybe he thought I was hallucinating, or something… But I gave him my best sheepish grin, saluted again and replied.

“Tchaikovsky, sir. Variations on a Rococo Theme

for cello and orchestra. The second violin is a bit behind the beat…”

He sighed, shook his head, gave a vague sort of wave and said. “Carry on, then.” and drove off.

Two days later, a new standing order was published. “All gate guards will be issued batons and metronomes at the beginning of the night shift, in order to keep that pesky second violin in line. Said equipment will be returned to the Armory at the end of the shift along with the duty weapon.” The look of disbelief on the department head’s face was priceless… 🙂

In what unconventional ways have people managed to work little and earn a lot?

In 2012, the United States discovered suspicious Chinese access to the country’s critical infrastructure.

After some research, security officials found the culprit. It was not a Chinese hacker, but a Verizon employee, simply called “Bob.”

Bob did not have criminal intentions, as everyone initially suspected.

He did not feel like working hard all day and had found a creative way to enliven his day with more pleasant things.

The 40-year-old programmer had managed to outsource his work to Chinese programmers. He had physically sent his RSA token to a Chinese company so that Asian programmers could use his credentials during his working hours pretending to be him.

This is an RSA token. It is a security id, a kind of “ID card” of the employee.

Chinese programmers received less than 20% of his six-figure salary.

Over the years, Bob had become a highly regarded employee for his “clean, well-written” code. He was called ‘the best developer in the house.'”

In reality, however, he spent his days on Facebook, Ebay, and Linkedin, watching many cat videos.

At 4:30 p.m., before the day was over, he would send a report to management.

After the investigation, Bob was obviously fired, and presumably his Chinese colleagues also lost their jobs.

Which, in my opinion, was not smart on the part of the company. Because the Chinese had really shown themselves to be trustworthy.

What was the downfall of the “popular kid” in your school?

All of my classmates were “popular” from my outside-of-the-social-circle view. But here is what I know caused the “downfall” of two of them who were particularly popular. I graduated in 1998, and this is all from what happened when we were still in high school, what I’ve heard through the grapevine in the 22 years since, and what they post on Facebook:

Martha – Was one of the most popular girls in school, mainly because puberty had been very kind to her. She was dating a man in his 20s when she was a junior, so she was either 16 or 17. She was in his car one night when he flipped it over twice on the highway. It was a single-car accident. I believe alcohol was involved. She never came back to school after that. She survived, but was never quite the same. The man she was with died. Later, the rumor came out that her parents didn’t even know she was dating him. Had he survived, he could have been arrested for statutory rape.

Kyle – The school’s token “surfer dude.” I grew up near the beach, and surfing was a popular pastime with the rich kids. He was the most popular one in that group, and he even looked the part: dark tanned skin, bushy blonde hair, fairly “ripped,” etc… So he was popular with the girls in school. That popularity lasted beyond school and, sometime in his early 20s, he got caught sleeping with someone else’s wife and got the crap beat out of him. As in, an extended hospital stay for facial reconstruction kind of beating. The assault even made the local news. I’m not sure if the guy who beat him did any jail time, but I know that, according to all of our mutual friends, Kyle’s life hasn’t been very great since then. Everyone just describes it as “sad.” Did you hear about Kyle? It’s so sad, what’s happened to him…

I’m on time everyday, work at a fast pace do everything correctly, get complimented on my work but always get fired within the first few weeks and get told it’s nothing to do with my work I’m just not the right fit why does this keep happening?

I had a friend who was let go before his three month probation period was over. He was competent, I had worked with him before, and he always got his work done on time, when I worked with him.

His wife was suspicious that somebody was finding out where he got a job, and phoning in a bad reference. I don’t think that was the case, but its possible.

You know how some people have whats called a resting grumpy face. Well he had a resting happy face. It looked like he was always smiling. So when his boss would explain something serious to him, he would be smiling like he had not a concern in the world. He also had a sense of humor that alternated between dry and sardonic, that many people didn’t get.

Some people were insulted by his humor, because they didn’t get it. Then they would ask for an apology, and he would have the biggest smile, while he apologized.

I think that was his problem. But he didn’t even know he was constantly smiling. So he was totally unaware of the effect it had on people.

If you sat next to a famous celebrity in a restaurant, would you start a conversation? What would you say?

No. I assume you mean at a separate table.

I’ve been in restaurants with famous people—I’ve been on film sets WORKING with famous people.

One time—long ago, on lunch break from working on the film “Pump Up the Volume” [1991] —was director John Waters—having lunch with porn star Traci Lords—an odd pairing, I thought—but not too odd.

I just noticed and didn’t bother them.

When I was a young fan—in film school—being exposed to the NYCity celebrity scene—I got a few autographs—Robin Williams, Peter Frampton, Monty Python Terry Jones, Charles Durning, Mike McGear [Paul McCartney’s brother], Joey Ramone.

But once I was in the business—it seemed kind of weird.

Especially with people I worked with—Christian Slater, Robert Englund [Nightmare’s Freddy!], Paul Dooley, and others.

Funny thing is—I’ve met far more celebrities “off the clock” than I did working in the business.

And oddly—I’ve been in LA for over 32 years now—and I think I met more in New York than I have here.

Being on foot in NY is more common than being on foot in LA—where I’m mostly in a car. This allows accidental meetings to take place more often.

Just not talking to women

Grilled Lasagna Sandwiches

The recipe ingredients are per sandwich.

Ingredients

• 2 slices bacon or ham
• 2 slices mozzarella or Swiss cheese
• Sour cream
• Tomato paste
• Bread
• Oregano

Instructions

1. Spread sour cream and tomato paste on bread and sprinkle on a little oregano to flavor.
2. Fry bacon or ham and put it between two slices prepared bread.
3. Butter the outside of the bread, fry, and eat.

What are some ways to predict whether or not someone will be successful in the future?

One of the best things I did with my kid.

On his 18th birthday, I sat him down in front of the television and played him a video of his three-year-old self.

He burst out laughing so hard he had tears rolling down his cheeks.

The video was an experiment based on delayed gratification, known as the ‘Marshmallow Test’.

In a classic experiment from the 1970s, a psychologist named Walter Mischel placed a treat in front of children and offered them a choice – they could either enjoy the treat now or wait a brief period to get two snacks.

When the experimenter left the room, many of the kids couldn’t wait and ate the treat (often a cookie or marshmallow), but a portion of the kids could delay the urge to enjoy the treat and wait for the reward of getting more delicious goodies.

What Mischel concluded was that the kids able to delay gratification had several advantages later on over the kids who could not wait.

The children who waited performed better academically than kids who ate the treat right away.

He found kids who delayed their gratification also displayed fewer behavioural problems and had much higher SAT scores.

His findings have since been largely debunked for not taking into consideration socio-economic factors. The latest research suggests there is a lesser correlation between the results showing willpower, and a greater emphasis on delayed gratification being an indicator of intelligence.

I don’t know if it matters to this, I only did it as a bit of fun.

In the video, I sat my son down at the kitchen table and placed two bowls of sweets in front of him; one bowl had five sweets, the other just the one.

I told him he could have the one sweet now, but if he could wait for five minutes – and I pointed at the minute hand on the clock and showed him where it needs to go to – then he could have the bowl with five sweets.

I then left the room.

His facial expressions were hilarious.

The angst.

His face alternating from contemplation to expectant glee and then more angst.

He employed diversion tactics… looking away, checking the sweets, looking at the door, checking the sweets, studying the clock, checking the sweets.

Rubbing his eyes, checking the sweets.

His 18-yr-old self was in kinks at this 3-yr-old child.

He couldn’t remember doing it and it brought him to tears of joy.

It was brilliant.

I recommend all parents do this… for the fun of it alone.

Five minutes later, I returned.

He had not eaten the sweets.

His face was a picture of delight.

He grabbed the bowl with 5 sweets and stuffed them in his pockets.

Smiling like a lemon shark.

Then, an afterthought… he went back to the table and took the single sweet too.

A brief life

What do you wish was socially acceptable?

I had a friend in my school. In Class 10th, the registration forms for boards were getting checked by our class teacher. He was calling each student roll-number wise and asking their details. When his number came and he was asked, “ Father’s occupation”, he replied, he is a house husband.

Our Sir mocked him saying, “So, he packs your tiffin boxes, hahaha!! ”

My friend also laughed at it, taking it a good joke.

---

Actually, my friend lives in my colony. His mother is a nurse in a reputed govt. hospital and his Dad stays at home, doing all the works a genuine housewife does.

They are well economically. The husband is damn caring. Each evening, he goes hospital and takes his wife to home, lifting her bags in his hands. Both are happy.

But the man is nothing but a laughing stock in our colony. No man, literally no man is his friend here. No one talks to him as he is busy in his house chores too and he doesn’t do “manly” activities. He washes clothes, wipes the floor, maintains bills, buys groceries etc. But he is mocked behind his back. People say words like,

“E kouno kaam na Kari… jeevan bhar aapan mehraaru ke kamaayi khhat rah jaayi.”

He’ll never do any work and will keep feeding on his wife’s earnings forever.

But have we ever asked any women like, “Why she’s a housewife?”

In fact society’s eyes start glittering when they hear that this woman is a housewife.

But being house husband is shameful, malicious, atrocious, non-manly thing.

What do you wish was socially acceptable?

That if a couple has agreed to their terms that one will work and others will stay home, then we must shut our mouth if the gender is not suitable to our eyes. Neither housewife nor househusband is a pity task if the couple has decided to work this way.

Stop judging.

Show us the cross…

When did you realize your parents were bad at parenting?

my father was a great parent, but he was often not home, and when this incident happened, he was fighting the Korean War. I was not quite five when I discovered that my mother was basically a piece of garbage. Dad traveled a lot with his work after the military, and my mother would have never done any of this stuff when he was around.

Going back to age 4, we were shopping for new Easter dresses. I saw a pretty pale blue flowered dress that I really wanted. I was born blind in one eye and you could tell. I was skinny and had kinky black hair while my older sister was very pretty and blonde

My mother told me I could not have the blue dress because ugly little girls should wear brown and dark green so people would not notice them. I threw up on the floor of the store. She bought my sister the blue dress I got a dark green checked dress, that was so ugly. I have torn up any picture that ever showed any sign of it.

Now if this was the only thing my mother ever said to me like that, it would be OK but it wasn’t. But she never hurt my feelings again because I thought she was a drunken piece of garbage. In fact, I kind of got a kick out of the things that she said. My favorite was when she told my too much younger sisters, that they should be very careful or they might end up like me, not a normal woman. My little sister laughed at her and said“yeah, we might grow to be lawyers too. shoot me now“

My husband told me that my father‘s funeral was the worst display of emotion that he had ever seen because my father had five children who adored him and overtly mourned his passing. I did not see a tear at my mother‘s funeral.

if I could change things in my childhood, I would want a mother who loved me and a mother that I loved.

Absolutely priceless…

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/YYlAaPL41b0?feature=share

Do people eat the red layer outside the cheese, or do they peel it off? What cheese is that?

Ah, the classic cheese question. The red layer you’re referring to on the outside of cheese is known as the rind.

The first thing to know is that not all cheese rinds are created equal. Some are edible and tasty, others are purely functional. But let’s talk about the red rind, specifically.

That red layer is often found on a type of cheese you might see on a pub menu or nestled in a fancy charcuterie board: Gouda, Edam, or sometimes even Cheddar. It’s a wax coating, and it serves a grand purpose. The wax prevents the cheese from drying out and also protects it from unwanted nibbling critters while it ages to perfection.

So, should you eat the wax? I’ll stop you right there. No. Wax is not meant to be eaten. It’s like the shell on a peanut; it’s part of the packaging. You’re supposed to peel it off and discard it. Now, some might argue that there might be a cheese or two where the outer layer is dyed but isn’t wax. It’s rare but in these cases, you can eat it. However, the real star is what’s inside.

Now let’s go a step beyond. Some cheeses do have rinds that you’re meant to eat. Think Brie or Camembert with their soft, white mold rinds; they’re part of the experience. The rind adds texture and flavor complexity that cheese lovers seek out.

But back to the red wax. When you’ve got a chunk of Gouda and you’re really getting down to it, you’ll cut away the wax as you slice off delectable pieces to enjoy.

To wrap up—pun intended—most red layers on cheese are like a book cover for your cheese, telling you a bit about what’s inside and keeping it in good condition until you’re ready to dive into the story. It’s not part of the meal, it’s just a protective layer. Peel it off, toss it aside, and enjoy the cheesy goodness within.

Enjoy your cheese adventures, and remember, just because it’s wrapped up doesn’t mean it’s meant to be eaten. Happy cheese hunting!

What do you love about life, and what is the reason?

Right now, as I type this, I’m in Florida helping care for my mom. My dad and I have been doing 12-hour shifts with her, because she needs round-the-clock care. Between that and all the thousand things around the house that need tending to that my dad isn’t able to, I haven’t been sleeping much.

Last night at about 5am my mom started having trouble breathing, so I called 911. We just heard from the hospital 10 minutes ago. The cancer has spread to her lungs and brain. She really wanted to make it to her birthday in 6 days. The doctors don’t think she’ll make it.

So I’m not maybe the best person to talk about loving life right now.

And yet…

A few days ago, my wife and I spent a couple of hours at the Festival of Lights in Cape Coral. They had hot cocoa and a campfire with marshmallows.

When I stumbled out of bed this morning (well, technically this afternoon), the first thing that happened was my mom’s cat sat at my feet, meowed at me, and headbutted me to say hi.

Right at this very moment, I’m looking out the window onto my parents’ patio, where three squirrels are chasing each other across the screen roof, and it’s delightful.

I was born just barely early enough to see humanity walk on the moon—-some of my earliest childhood memories are sitting in front of a B&W TV watching the Apollo launches. Odds are good I will see humanity walk on Mars. Isn’t that amazing?

I am surrounded by love. I’m spending Christmas with my Talespinner. My life is filled with creativity and joy—I write books with some of my lovers, my wife and I created the Borg Queen xenomorph parasite cosplay from an idea she had three years ago, I’m teaching myself CNC machining and laser engraving.

I live in a time of unprecedented peace and prosperity in human history. We can fly through the air. Every day, we learn more about the universe.

This photo:

was taken by a probe that landed on a comet. We have the capacity to launch a probe that can travel for years and then arrive precisely on a small rock traveling at 84,000 miles per hour, which is about like a person in Boston shooting a rifle and hitting a golf ball in midair in Moscow. (Bizarre how many people think science is “just another belief system,” eh?)

And, I mean, I get it. The world isn’t all roses. Right now, far too many people in my country are too uneducated in history to recognize when they’re being lied to by yet another populist grifter selling them the same old tired lie that all their failures are the fault of somebody else.

We have a political party that takes gleeful, sadistic delight in mendacious cruelty, and a voting populace that sincerely believes it’s okay to vote for the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party because surely the leopards won’t eat their faces—only the faces of the Mexicans and the gays and the trans people, right?

There is pettiness, and cruelty, and meanspiritedness. There are people who make voting choices because they want to hurt other Americans just to own the libs.

But viewed on a large enough scale, the moral arc of the universe bends toward justice. We may be in the “one step back” part of the “two steps forward, one step back” cycle, yet this too shall pass.

I want to be here to see what happens next.

Saving the cub

Disney Left Out the Most Gruesome Aspects of the Original Snow White Story

Oh, Snow White, that classic, if a little retro, fairytale of good triumphing over evil. It’s a sweet story of an innocent young beauty who is banished by a vain, cruel, and jealous stepmother and who, with the help of seven lovable dwarfs, ultimately finds everlasting true love. Walt Disney turned the fable into the first full-length animated musical feature film in 1937. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is to this day one of the top-10 films of all time (adjusted for inflation), beloved by generations of children.

It turns out the American animator left out a few gruesome details. Disney’s well-known Snow White is a sanitized version of the original German Brothers Grimm fairytale, which was a lot more, well, grim.

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm didn’t actually come up with the story of Snow White or Cinderella, Rapunzel, or any other storybook princess associated with their (and now Disney’s) name, for that matter. The Grimms were German scholars, researchers, and authors who collected folktales that were part of a rich oral tradition, having been passed down from generation to generation of women telling the stories to pass the time. In 1812, they published the collection as Nursery and Household Tales.

Despite its title, the book was not originally intended for children. The text included violence, incest, sex, and perhaps most deadly of all—footnotes. In the Cinderella story, for instance, the stepsisters cut off their toes and heels in order to fit into the glass slipper.

In “Little Snow-White,” as the original story was called, the Evil Queen asks a hunter to take Snow White into the forest to kill, as happens also in the movie. (In the original version, the child is also only 7 years old, as opposed to Disney’s 14. Neither seems old enough to consider marriage.)

In the Grimm version, the Queen orders the huntsman to bring back Snow White’s internal organs, saying “Kill her, and as proof that she is dead bring her lungs and liver back to me.”

He kills a boar instead, and brings back to the Queen the boar’s lungs and liver—which the Queen thinks belongs to Snow White and so promptly eats. Ewww!

“The cook had to boil them with salt, and the wicked woman ate them, supposing that she had eaten Snow-White’s lungs and liver,” as the Grimm brothers wrote.

The Queen tricks Snow White three separate times in the Grimm version. The first time, she has Snow White try on a corset, which is so tight, Snow White passes out. (The dwarfs save her by cutting the laces.) The second time, she sells Snow White a poisonous comb, which the young girl puts in her hair, causing her to pass out. (The dwarfs take it out.) The third time the Queen tricks her with the same poisonous apple we see in the Disney film.

Having fainted and presumed dead, young Snow-White is placed in a glass coffin in both book and movie. When the Prince happens by in the Grimm version, he insists on taking the deceased beauty away, even though he’s never met her. The dwarfs hesitantly agree, but as they are carrying her coffin out of their house, one of them stumbles. Jostled from her resting place in the coffin, Snow White spits out the apple lodged in her throat and is immediately revived. Without the influence of the Prince’s kiss.

In movie and in folklore, Snow White and the Prince fall in love and get married (never mind that in the original tale, Snow is only 7 years old). In the movie, the seven dwarfs chase the Evil Queen into the forest, where she tumbles off a cliff—with a push from a convenient lightning strike—and falls to her death.

In the book version, the Queen attends their wedding where she is meted out a just punishment of dancing to her death. (Perhaps this last was thought up by a 19^th century noblewoman forced to dance endlessly to the 1812 version of Bruno Mars’s “Marry You.”)

The more Grimm version of the Queen’s death goes like this: “They put a pair of iron shoes into burning coals. They were brought forth with tongs and placed before her. She was forced to step into the red-hot shoes and dance until she fell down dead.”

You can see why Disney wanted to clean up that unsavory image!

As a police officer, has someone you pulled over ever threatened to call “Daddy”?

I am working as a police sergeant in a small city in the midwest. A man comes in, wearing a very nice suit. A young woman is standing next to him. He tells me that about an hour ago one of my officers pulled over his 16 year old daughter. The gentleman says the officer told the young woman she would have to give him oral sex or he would write her a ticket that would cause her to lose her probationary license. The man wanted the officer terminated immediately or he was going to call his friend “the mayor” and have both of us fired.

I asked to see the citation he is holding. I asked if his daughter would be willing to give a sworn statement so I have evidence of the situation I can use for further action? He agrees. I bring a court reporter and an audio recorder. I date and time stamp the start of the tape and ask her describe the situation that occurred when she was issued citation number XXXXXXX on this date.

She gives a full complete account just like the details her father had given to me a few minutes before. When she concludes her statement, the court reporter asked her to sign a promise that all information is true and factual to the best of her with the understanding it may be used in criminal actions in this matter.

At this point I only know what I have been told by her father and her. But I knew something the father and daughter do not know. About a month prior to this event the police department installed cameras in all the squad cars. Whenever the red lights are activated the camera starts recording and microphone mounted on the officer’s shirt picks up audio and puts it on the tape (it was the initial use of squad cameras, we used VCR tapes, But the officers had no ability to over write or erase recorded tape).

The court reporter took the dictated statement to the girl and had her sign, and her father had co-signed because she was underage, the court reporter then took the statement upstairs to the clerk of court for filing.

I went to to the Evidence Room and watched the video tape of the traffic stop that had been recorded on our new squad cam system. 15 minutes later I came back to the interview room. The father was mad this was taking so long. I explained we had some new systems and I was reviewing how they matched up with his daughter’s testimony. I put a tape in the VCR and played every second of the traffic stop from the time the lights were turned on till officer ended the recording by manually shutting off the record feature by turning off his red lights and camera. The officer was professional and told the reason for the stop and requested the driver’s license, registration and insurance card from the driver. He went back to the squad with no further discussion other than to tell her to remain in her vehicle while he checked her status and wrote her citation. He came back to her car explained the citation, she asked”Isn’t there something I can do to get out of this ticket?” The officer said, “no, the citation has been issued, pay the listed fine or appear in court on the date shown, just slow down in the future, please use caution merging back into traffic. And then the officer walked back to his squad as the young lady drove away.

No sexual offer from the officer to void the citation, no discussion outside of the details of her responsibility to handle the fine or appear in court. And a standard warning to use caution merging back into traffic.

The father stood up, looked a little embarrassed. He said they had taken enough of my time and they should be going. I told him he was free to leave but his daughter filed a false police report. And Juvenile Probation Officers from the county were enroute to the station to charge her as a minor and determine if she should be placed in protective custody. I urged the father to remain and meet with JPO. I looked at the young lady and told her how lucky she was this happened when she was only 16 years old. An adult making the same false accusations would face felony charges. I told the father they could remain in the interview room until JPO arrived. If they tried to leave she would be taken and place in our juvenile holding area.

He was most cooperative at that point.

Now I believe the young lady thought a dramatic story would deflect any anger her father felt towards her for the citation. I am sure she did not realize how this would spin out of control and her father would make an official complaint. But if we did not have cameras the officer would have been been pulled from street duty and placed on an administrative assignment till Internal Affairs had completed their investigation. If they failed to find evidence enough to charge the officer I am sure Daddy would have have made loud and angry complaints to his friend the mayor.

There are many, many cases throughout law enforcement, public employees and private business where males in positions of authority have pressured women. It still happens today. Remember many but not all are true. I used this story for many years to convince officers that the need to document what they do correctly outweighs the same amount of time one of them does something bad.

And when they do we catch them, punish them and fire them. Camera system are expensive and keeping the recorded files is a logistical nightmare…but it is all worth it. Maybe we could require all politicians to wear cameras every day?

What do you think of the US’s recent sanctions on China, Turkey, and UAE firms?

What do I think?

I don’t think, I know. each sanction lead to more sanctions and each new sanction will create an anti sanction action. Countries throughout the world will pad themselves with measures where sanctions will be nullified and totally ineffective. More sanctions is pushing a new world order in that everything western and U.S. will be replace and alternate anti sanctions mechanisms and systems that make future sanctions not work any more.

That is what all sane and sensible people will do and react when you fxxked them up. They have dumped the dollar faster, they will stop using SWIFT, they will not accept western standards and set up their true world standards, the will avoid western banks, the will stop depending western financial institutions and system. They will ignore western rating agencies, they will stop depending on the west swiftly and speedily. That is what I know happened.

To me the U.S. are losing its unfair advantage. And each new sanctions is like another nail in coffin of the western rules based international order. I am certain the U.S. sanction because it getting desperate to keep its rules based international order but instead it is speeding the demise and implosion of the U.S.

That is what is happening in the world each time the U.S. sanction.

U.S. Military Has More Unfeasible Plans For Ukraine

Yesterday the Biden administration ‘declassified‘ laughable numbers about alleged Russian losses. It did not help. Zelenski’s mission to get more money from Congress has failed:

Following a roughly 30-minute meeting with Zelensky – their first one-on-one encounter – House Speaker Mike Johnson said the Biden administration’s response to congressional Republicans’ demands has been “insufficient,” and reiterated his stance that a deal remains unlikely without a “transformative change” at the border.

The Republicans also asked the White House for its strategy in Ukraine. But as the New York Times reported yesterday, there is none.

U.S. and Ukraine Search for a New Strategy After Failed Counteroffensive

American and Ukrainian military leaders are searching for a new strategy that they can begin executing early next year to revive Kyiv’s fortunes and flagging support for the country’s war against Russia, according to U.S. and Ukrainian officials.
…
The United States is stepping up the face-to-face military advice it provides to Ukraine, dispatching a three-star general to Kyiv to spend considerable time on the ground. U.S. and Ukrainian military officers say they hope to work out the details of a new strategy next month in a series of war games scheduled to be held in Wiesbaden, Germany.

That the counter-offensive had failed has been obvious since mid of June. A reason for the failure were fake war-games during which the parameters were skewed until the games showed that Ukraine would win:

Logic dictates that any responsible use of the KORA simulation system would have predicted the failure of the 47th Brigade’s attack. According to The Washington Post, the officers of the 47th Brigade “planned their assaults and then let the [KORA] program show them the results – how their Russian enemies might respond, where they could make a breakthrough and where they would suffer losses.” The KORA simulation allowed the Ukrainian officers to coordinate their actions “to test how they’d work together on the battlefield.”

Given that the Ukrainian force structure was insufficient to accomplish the mission-critical task of suppression, there was no chance for the Ukrainian forces to accomplish the actual assault requirements of a breaching operation – the destruction of enemy forces on the opposite side of the obstacle barrier being breached. The Ukrainians, however, came away from their KORA experience confident that they had crafted a winning plan capable of overcoming the Russian defenses in and around Orekhov.

When one examines the structure of a KORA-based simulation, it becomes clear that the system is completely dependent upon the various inputs which define the simulation as a whole.

Now the U.S. is sending one of its generals to take command of the Ukrainian army and will launch more war games. To what outcome will their parameters be skewed.

Apparently the time since late June was insufficient to come up with a new strategy for Ukraine. This will not do:

Some in the U.S. military want Ukraine to pursue a “hold and build” strategy — to focus on holding the territory it has and building its ability to produce weapons over 2024. The United States believes the strategy will improve Ukraine’s self-sufficiency and ensure Kyiv is in a position to repel any new Russian drive.

The goal would be to create enough of a credible threat that Russia might consider engaging in meaningful negotiations at the end of next year or in 2025.

At the same time, Ukrainian officials are examining strategies that build on their successful deep strikes on Crimea last fall. They are searching for creative ways to keep Russia off balance with attacks against arms factories, weapons depots and train lines for moving munitions, and to score symbolic victories. One Ukrainian former senior military official declined to discuss the proposals but said the new plan is being refined and is “very daring.”

The plan is that Ukraine will go into defense mode while committing more terrorism. But why would Russia let Ukraine build real defense lines? Ukraine is starved of artillery ammunition. It does not have the troops to hold all lines.

And whatever line it can build will break under intensive fire.

In the Summer of 1943, after German attack on Kursk had failed, the Soviets went into an offensive mode that did not stop until its troops captured Berlin. The German army retreated to defense lines, then retreated again and again – all the way back to Berlin. It took nearly two years, but the outcome was obvious as soon as the attack on Kursk had failed.

I expect something similar to happen in Ukraine.

The U.S. is starting its typical mission creep:

Gen. Christopher G. Cavoli, the top American commander in Europe, has been taking a bigger role in coordinating with Ukrainian officials.

The Pentagon has also decided to dispatch Lt. Gen. Antonio A. Aguto Jr., who commands the support of Ukraine from a base in Germany, to spend lengthy periods of time in Kyiv. General Aguto will work more directly with the country’s military leadership to improve the advice the United States is offering, American officials said. While the White House has opted not to have U.S. military advisers in the country permanently, General Aguto’s frequent rotations in and out of Kyiv would inch toward the end of that restriction.

A three star general does not come alone. He has a full group of staff, dozens, which will now become military advisors on the ground in Ukraine. They will also become priority targets.

And what do those advisors know about an industrial warfare that Ukraine soldiers do not know. Well, nothing.

Yves Smith as well as Simplicius have further thoughts on this.

I for one see no change yet of the trajectory Ukraine is on. It is losing badly while its propaganda is still claiming victory. Consider this from today’s Washington Post:

Loud explosions jolted many residents out of bed around 3 a.m. in central Kyiv, followed by air raid alert sirens a few minutes later. Ukraine’s air force said that antiaircraft defenses shot down all 10 ballistic missiles that were launched at Kyiv. That assertion could not be independently confirmed.

Multiple missile impacts happened BEFORE the air alarm went on. But the Ukrainian military claims to have shut all incoming missiles down. That does not sound like a plausible time line to me. I, in fact believe that the few air defense system Kiev was give, like its artillery, pretty much out of ammunition.

With no further aid coming from the U.S., and potentially also not from Europe, it is high time to shut the war down.

Posted by b on December 13, 2023 at 15:04 UTC | Permalink

How did World War II soldiers survive?

WW2, the deadliest conflict in human history. Yet there are some incredible stories of survival by soldiers. I’ll give two.

One was Alan E. Magee. He was a gunner on a B-17 bomber.

He was on a mission over France in 1943 when his plane got hit by German flak and started to go down.

He tried to bail out, but his parachute was damaged and he couldn’t open it. So he decided to jump anyway, hoping for a miracle.

He fell 22,000 feet without a parachute and crashed through the glass roof of a train station.

He survived with only some broken bones and cuts. He was captured by the Germans, who were amazed that he was still alive.

They treated his wounds and sent him to a POW camp, where he spent the rest of the war.

He was liberated in 1945 and returned to the US. He lived until 2003, when he died at the age of 84.

There’s another guy who might be even luckier.

His name was Alistair Urquhart, and he was a Scottish soldier in the Gordon Highlanders regiment.

He was captured by the Japanese in Singapore in 1942 and sent to work on the infamous Death Railway in Thailand.

He endured torture, starvation, disease and beatings for years. He was then put on a cargo ship that was torpedoed by an American submarine.

He survived the sinking and spent five days floating in the ocean with sharks and corpses.

He was rescued by a Japanese whaling ship and taken to Nagasaki, where he was forced to work as a slave laborer.

He survived the atomic bombing of Nagasaki in 1945 and was freed by the Americans shortly after.

He returned to Scotland and lived until 2016, when he died at the age of 97.

Women’s Dating Standards have Ruined Relationships

Number of close relationships…

What was the most satisfying conversation you had with someone who tried to intimidate you?

What was the most satisfying conversation you had with someone who tried to intimidate you?On first impressions, Frank was a nice guy. He extended his hand the moment he walked in my door, “How the devil are you?” he said, all bright and cheery.

Italian Sandwiches

Ingredients

• 4 sub buns
• 4 Italian sausages, sweet, mild or hot
• 1 cup mozzarella cheese
• 1 jar pizza sauce

Instructions

1. Grill sausage until done.
2. Slice buns open like a hot dog bun.
3. Spread some pizza sauce inside, then place a sausage and cover with cheese.
4. Wrap with foil and place over coals or on grill just long enough to melt cheese.
5. Add mushrooms or whatever other garnishes are desired and available.

What is an experience you had with a client you’ll never forget?

I had a messy divorce with children. Wife left the children at home alone while she traveled out of state to see her new internet boyfriend. The children ran out of food and were scared to be home alone. They called the court appointed attorney ad litem. She called me. She told me – send your client to pick up the children immediately. She told me that she was going to set a hearing and tell the judge about the wife leaving the small children (all under 14) home alone for days with no food. I called Dad. He said “I am getting read to pick up my date and I am going to have sex tonight.” I told him to cancel his date and go get his kids. He refused. I asked him if I could have his mom (grandma) pick them up since they were home alone and hungry. He said no and refused to allow me to ever talk to his mom again. I had to call the court appointed attorney ad litem and tell her what was going on. She had to find someone else to pick up the children that night. I had represented 3 generations in this family for many years about all their legal issues. His mom kept calling — but I could not talk to her since he had instructed me not to do so. She was so angry at me. She “stalked” me for over a year. I really wanted her to know what her son did – she would have “kicked his butt”! Plus, he never paid his legal bill. This case was a real disaster and I’d spent hours working on it. As I recall his legal bill was over $10,000. I withdrew from the case. I was so mad. I had worked for months to get him primary custody. I worked hard to get the court appointed attorney ad litem was on Dad’s side. I actually watched the trial because I was so pissed. Dad came off as a total jerk with his new attorney. Mom’s attorney “got her to clean up” and ditch the internet boyfriend. Mom had a really good attorney who worked with her client to make her seem like a great parent. Mom was given primary custody of the children.

My Christmas wish is that grandma see what I wrote and understand why I withdrew and what her son did. This was probably 20 years ago and the kids are grown. I don’t know if grandma is alive. But due to this crummy client I never got another call from anyone in that family again.

In Texas, we have attorney-client privilege. If a client says you cannot talk to anyone, then you cannot. You cannot even defend yourself when they call you and scream at you. It can be frustrating at times.

Well stated

What’s a rule your employer implemented that backfired terribly?

Many years ago I had a nut case of a Regional Manager named Bob. Bob got a bonus based not only on sales, but lowering expenses

At this time, phone calls were not free, even local calls cost around 10 cents per minute. Bob walked by my office while I was on a call with a customer and waited for me to finish. Then he said to me “asking the customer how he was doing today cost us 10 cents, stop wasting money”. Thereafter everyone made calls only when he was not around, and productivity dropped

The office was in New Jersey where it was at that time illegal to have self serve gas stations. One day he announced that all our gas receipts had full serve noted, and we were wasting money by not using self serve. Any receipts not marked self serve would be rejected. We all drove across the border to NY in order to pump our own gas, for 20 cents more per gallon.

He posted a sign stating that if you made more than 4 photocopies of something, you must go up 6 floors to the copy center and use the massive copy machine, not the local one. He said it saved .03 cents per copy! Someone posted an analysis showing the electricity for the elevator up and down cost more than .12 cents.

Yes, Bob got fired.

If the Titanic had never hit that iceberg, what would the rest of its ocean going career have been like? How long a life was it likely to have?

For the answer to this question one need look no further than Titanic’s sister ship, RMS Olympic. What most people don’t realize is that, as the older sister, Olympic was much more well known. All those superlatives we associate with Titanic — ship of dreams, floating palace, world’s largest moving object, etc. — were originally lavished on Olympic. In 1911, when she was launched, an entire issue of the trade publication The Shipbuilder was devoted to Olympic, with barely a passing mention of the other sister then under construction. Before the sinking Olympic was far and away the more famous sister and arguably the most famous ship in the world.

Unlike her ill-fated little sister, Olympic apparently WAS unsinkable. She had three serious collisions in her career, the first of which (with the warship HMS Hawke) left her severely damaged but still afloat. The second such incident was in 1916 when Olympic turned and rammed a German U-boat that had tried to sink her; the U-boat attempted to dive but to no avail — Olympic’s propellers tore open the sub’s pressure hull like it was aluminum foil. The liner emerged from the encounter with a slight dent on her lower prow and a legendary reputation as the only civilian vessel to sink an enemy warship in World War 1. Finally, in 1934, Olympic collided with and sank the Nantucket lightship LV-117 in heavy fog. Again Olympic escaped serious damage.

Olympic transported thousands of troops to and from the theaters of war in WW1, earning the undying devotion of those who traveled upon her. They called her “Old Reliable” because she always brought you home. Others referred to her affectionately as simply “Oly.” Captain Sir Bertram Fox Hayes, Olympic’s longest-serving commander and a towering figure in British maritime history (he was in command when they sank the U-boat), called her, “The finest ship, in my estimation, that has ever been built or ever will be.”

But alas, all good things must come to an end. The Great Depression hit the shipping companies hard, and by then Olympic was over 20 years old and showing her age. When White Star merged with Cunard she was retired. She was sent to the scrapyard in 1935. Fortunately some of her interior fittings and panels were preserved and can now be found in the White Swan Hotel in Alnwick, England.

She was shakin’

What is your freaky “I think social media is listening to my conversations” experience?

A YouTube user, Neville, posted a video that completely changed the way I look at Social Media.

He and his wife suspected Facebook was listening to their phone calls. They started noticing ads popping up that were eerily similar to the things they’d been talking about the day before.

They decided they would do a test.

They didn’t own a cat. They hadn’t had a cat in 20 years. They never talked about cats.

They set up a phone call, where they both repeated the words “cat” and “cat food” over and over again during a 10-minute phone call.

A few days later:

Both his and her Facebook feed were filled with cat food commercials.

After seeing this video, it primed my awareness to it, and I immediately began noticing the same pattern on my own Facebook feed. And this has since been tested by other users who confirmed similar creepy results.

Social Media Apps can and do listen to your phone calls.

Why?

The more targeted they can make their ads, the more they can charge companies for those ads. To make more highly targeted ads, they want to get right inside of your head and know everything about you.

If you don’t want Facebook (or any app) to listen to your calls, you need to go into your settings on your phone, find the app, click on permissions, and disable access to the microphone.

Social Media companies will get as much information as possible about you with little regard for what is right or wrong. Just as long as it is legal (enough), they’ll do it.