When I worked in the coal mines I would pack a paper bag, and for the most part people would leave it alone. But I started adding a thermos of coffee or soup also.
It’s a short story, but important.
When I was in elementary school I used to carry a lunch box. It was the Jetsons, and later I got a G.I.Joe lunch box.
My mother would pack a sandwich, some fruit in it and some soup. I don’t ever remember drinking the soup, but I did eat the sandwiches. I also never traded lunches that I recall.
She packed it. I ate it.
Then most of my school years was spent int he school cafeteria. SO I didn’t need a lunch box.
But I did need to get one when I worked in the coal mines.
Initially, I packed a brown paper bag, but eventually I would pack a lunch with a mid-day snack and a thermos of coffee. And that is my tale of lunches as a “young working man”.
And now you know.
And this is how they pack lunches in China…
Today…
Any advice for an 18-year-old girl going into the U.S. Navy? I’m anxious but excited. I ship out this summer.
Boot camp is going to be both harder and easier than you expect. Harder, because nothing can prepare you for the isolation of being completely cut off from the outside world. You’ll get one phone call when you arrive, and a couple more while you’re there, and you can write and receive letters, but it’s nothing like the connectedness that is the modern world.
Easier, because it’s not all PT every day. You’ll PT once a day for an hour, and get smoked (IT aka intensive training) whenever someone makes a mistake, but if you keep your head down and stay out of trouble, it won’t be too bad. Most of your time will be spent in a classroom.
Once you’re at your first command, take advantage of all the opportunities the Navy will offer you. You can get up to a Master’s degree for free while you’re still in. This is completely separate from your GI bill.
Invest in TSP. With the Blended Retirement System, the Navy will match up to 5%. If you put in 10% from the beginning, that’s 15% towards your retirement fund, and you’ll never miss the money because it will never be in your account in the first place.
Find a mentor. Someone who’s been where you are and has reached the place you want to be.
Take on collaterals. Yes it’s more work for no tangible benefit, but it will look good on your evals and give you a chance to interact with people outside your division. When the CO has the chance to choose who to MAP (meritoriously advance), he might think of the person who did such a great job planning the command picnic.
Fair winds and following seas!
After two opium wars, how was the number of opium addicts of China?
Let’s bear in mind that when it comes to opium, “users” should not be confused with “addicts.” An addict would be consuming something like 7–8 grams of opium a day, which would make it very difficult for them to carry on a normal life. Most Chinese – like most users in Southeast Asia, India, and the West, were casual, what we might call “recreational” users of the drug, or else they consumed it for medicinal reasons. Opium was in all sorts of patent medicines sold in the West.
A lot of Chinese workers used opium much as people in the West now use CBD. It was a quick-acting pain killed for people who worked long hours at arduous, physical tasks.
I’ve seen statistics of about 20 million people for the time period of the Opium Wars (1840s-1860s), and 40 million for c. 1936, which suggests that addiction rates remained steady at about 10% of the population. It’s very difficult to know such numbers with any precision. Before the 1860s, when opium was legalized in China (indeed, when it began to be produced within the country, legally), distribution and use of the drug were clandestine activities. We can, however, get some idea of the amount of opium available, and possible use rates, because we do have statistics for that.
A single ball of opium would be sufficient to get the entire adult population of a small city high (or, at least, very relaxed). Given that thousands of such balls were being imported at the time of the Opium Wars (there were 40 in each chest), the above statistics don’t seem too far-fetched. Opium was used in China in very small amounts per hit, and “cut” with tobacco and other substances. In bulk, opium was quite expensive, but a single hit was a relatively cheap indulgence that even common laborers could afford. The people in the opium business didn’t sell opium to make money. What they did was sell opium to break down people’s inhibitions and get them to gamble, procure prostitutes, etc. Opium was used as a “gateway drug” for other vices where the real money was. In the grand scheme of things, opium dens were actually not the most pernicious part of the system.
On the whole, addiction rates were probably higher in Southeast Asia, for reasons connected with socio-economic conditions and trade during the colonial period. This is why Southeast Asian countries have such draconian anti-drug laws today. These countries came out of colonialism with an extreme drug problem that needed to be eradicated if they were to pursue development.
Why did the Japanese government foolishly declare that the Sino-Japanese Joint Statement is not legally binding?
This is an extremely stupid act for Japan, which not only provides China with an excuse, but also gives China the initiative for nothing.
- In the future, if China feels that the Japan–China Joint Communiqué is favorable to China, it can suppress Japan on a moral level, accusing Japan of going back on its word and breaking its promise.
- In the future, if China feels that the Japan-China Joint Communiqué has become a hindrance to China’s development, then it can teach Japan a lesson with dignity, saying that it was Japan that tore up the Japan-China Joint Communiqué and that China has reason and evidence to teach Japan a lesson.
The Japan–China Joint Communiqué is the basis of the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and China.
If there is no Japan–China Joint Communiqué, the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and China will also be invalid. China will have the right to demand compensation from Japan for China’s war losses during WWII and to demand that Japan return the ownership of the Ryukyu Islands. This is the result that most Chinese have been looking forward to.
But that’s not what the Japanese Foreign Minister said during his meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi yesterday. In a meeting with Foreign Minister Wang Yi, the Japanese Foreign Minister said:
We attach importance to abiding by the four political documents between Japan and China, and there is no change in our position of adhering to the Japan–China Joint Communiqué of 1972 on the issue of Taiwan.
In the meeting, the Japanese Foreign Minister was the one who took the initiative to pull out a chair for Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and asked him to sit down first, and he put on a groveling face to Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
Therefore, the remarks claiming that the Japan–China Joint Communiqué is not legally binding are just news that Japanese government supplies to its domestic people for their amusement, with the purpose of deliberately pleasing its own nationals.
Japan doesn’t even dare to take back the Diaoyu Islands (Senkaku Islands), but does it dare to meddle in China’s Taiwan issue? 🤣
When Chinese reconnaissance planes approached the Japanese coastline for reconnaissance, the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force did not dare to take off to expel them at all, because Chinese reconnaissance planes flew over Japan too often, and Japan’s number of planes and their maintenance capacity were insufficient to cope with frequent reconnaissance on such a large scale.
But the Japanese people do not know these facts.
Nowadays, the western media, including Japan and South Korea, which are the puppet countries of the US, don’t consider the actual confrontation with China as the first priority, but just make up a story in the media – “they have won over China” to paralyze the people.
That is why Japan, South Korea and Taiwan are still bragging in the media about their great victories and the public is still very optimistic about confronting China. And Japanese and South Korean politicians are deliberately pandering to this kind of arrogance and optimism for the sake of their own votes.
But the Japanese and Korean politicians know very well that they are now lining up to lick China’s ass.
This set up is just a continuation of vote politics.
Japan’s GDP last year was even lower than it was in 1994, and even India is on the verge of overtaking Japan.
Japan is likely to be the first Asian country to fall from developed to developing status, followed by South Korea.
For China nowadays, the Japan–China Joint Communiqué itself is not important, national strength is everything, and only when China has national strength will any country abide by the content of the treaty signed with China.
Baker’s Divine Truffle Brownies
Yield: 16 brownies
Ingredients
- 1 (8 ounce) package semisweet or 1 (6 ounce) package bittersweet baking chocolate squares
- 1/4 cup butter
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2/3 cup heavy or whipping cream
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350 degrees F (325 degrees F for glass dish). Line an 8 inch baking dish with foil extending over edges to form handle. Grease foil.
- In a medium microwave-safe bowl, cook 2 squares of the chocolate and the butter on HIGH until butter is melted (about 1 1/2 minutes). Stir until chocolate is melted.
- Stir in 1/2 cup of the sugar. Stir in 1 egg until well blended.
- Stir in flour.
- Spread batter in pan.
- Cook remaining chocolate (6 squares if using semisweet, 4 squares if using bittersweet) and cream in microwave-safe bowl on HIGH for 1 1/2 minutes; stir until chocolate is melted.
- Beat remaining 1/4 cup sugar and the remaining 2 eggs in a small bowl with electric mixer on high speed 1 minutes until thick and lemon yellow-colored; beat in chocolate/cream mixture. Pour over batter in pan.
- Bake for 35 minutes to 40 minutes or until the truffle topping is set and edges begin to pull away from sides of pan.
- Cool in pan.
- Run knife around edge of pan to loosen brownies from sides. Lift from pan using foil as handles.
- Cut into 16 fudgy brownies.
What’s the hardest bug you’ve debugged?
In year 2000, the group that is responsible for the JPEG file format, called the JPEG group, decided to come up with a new version of the JPEG format. It was called JPEG2000. It had some really cool ideas. One of them was that it supported streaming of images. One JP2 image contained multiple resolutions of the same image, and the lower resolutions were kept upfront. So, when you are downloading the image, you will get a lower resolution immediately. The advantage was that on low speed connections, the browser could show a low-res image pretty quickly. Also, devices that were low-res could simply stop downloading the image when they had the resolution they wanted
At the time, JPEG2000 was hoping that the JP2 standard would make its way into browsers (spoiler: it still hasn’t). We wanted to use it to build mapping applications. We had encoded aerial photos into the JP2 format, and we had a server that returned SVG maps. Since there was no browser support, I built an ActiveX control that would stream the JP2 image and overlay it with the SVG maps. It was very cool. Our resolution was like 10 times better than Google Maps (at the time).
I was using a library called Kakadu library. It was an open-source library that could stream and parse JP2 images. Kakadu performed really really well. It was fast! Except that once in a while it would get stuck. Randomly. No pattern. So, they pulled me in and I suspected a problem that arises because of thread contention. So, I got to debugging it. At the time, I was young, and I understood multi-threading pretty well, but hadn’t really fixed a thread-contention problem. I was excited.
So, I dug into their code and started debugging it. The first thing I figured is when I debug, the problem goes away. Crap! Essentially, the debugger itself acts as a synchronization mechanism, and it changes the timing of how the instructions in the thread execute.
So, I started adding logs. The next thing I figured out is that when I add logs, the problem goes away! Crap again! Again, since the logging goes to the file system, the file system acts as a synchronization mechanism and throws the timing off.
So, I can’t debug, and I can’t log. It’s a fairly complicated piece of engineering, that I haven’t written. So, before I solve the real problem, I need to figure out how to troubleshoot in a multi-threaded environment. Crap!
So, I started thinking that it’s the synchronization by things outside the code that throws the timing off, right? So, as long as I keep the code inside of the external synchronization very tight, I might prevent the timing from going off. So, I started minimizing my log statements. Eventually, I figured out that if I put one character logs, I am fine. And I can’t put too many 1-character logs.
So, the first thing I had to figure out was if the code takes a path that is different when the problem occurs versus when the problem doesn’t occur. Remember, I could put only single character logs, and not too many of them. So, I started reading through the code without trying to understand it. Whenever I reached a decision point, I would put 2 logs in the 2 branches. One branch logged “\”, the other branch logged “/”. When I saw a loop, I logged “|” inside the loops. When I would see the logs, I would see the log as
- \|||//|||||||||\/\/\\\
I would run the app and note down these strings of characters when the code ran fine, then note down the characters when it didn’t. Next I compared the strings of characters to find the deviation. Finally, I would trace back through the code to find the spot at which the log message deviated.
Since I couldn’t put too many logs, I had to be judicious. Luckily, the Kakadu code was structured very very nicely. I want to kiss the Kakadu developers (even though they caused the bug). All their code was layered very nicely. They had high-level functions that called lower-level functions, that called even-lower-level functions. So, I picked the topmost layer and put my magic single-character logs there. When I found the deviation, I would understand the code to figure out why the deviation happened. Usually, it was because a lower-level routine behaved differently. So, I had to remove all my logs, and then add similar logs in a lower-level routine. I did this layer by layer till I found the bug.
This entire process took about three weeks. It was a one character fix. There was a busy-wait loop in the rendering thread that waited for data to be loaded by a producer thread. It checked a counter using < instead of <=. Usually, the counter would go from counter < expected to counter > expected, and it would work fine. In the rare condition that the = condition was satisfied, the rendering thread would prematurely parse the data, get an exception and cleanly exit. This would stop all rendering.
Three weeks, one character. I should get a T-shirt that says that.
Fixing this bug really showed me the value of building your code in layers.
Is DOGE ACTUALLY Popular?
What are the best incidents between father and daughter?
This is one I remember.
As a younger brother of two older twin sisters, I remember many incidents. But this one came to my mind first. Tracy was later telling us at the dinner table dad’s reaction of what he saw. Mom already knew about it. Tracy wanted to surprise dad.
She asked dad to come with her and help her pick up something from a store. Dad obligingly jumped into her car and they were off. Downtown they went. Suddenly Tracy pulled over and parked at the curb. She looked at dad with a smile. Dad asked what was up.
Tracy was 17 here and had been modelling since she was fifteen. She pointed forward. Dad looked and his eyes grew wide.
In front of them on a building was a huge 30 by 15 foot billboard with Tracy on it wearing a T shirt and a pair of jeans, her long blonde hair flowing in the wind.
The words on the billboard stated, ‘SAINT LAURENT JEANS WILL TURN HEADS EVERY TIME!’
It was Tracy’s first billboard. She noticed dad’s eyes were full of tears.
“Daddy! Are you crying?” she asked patting his shoulder. “What’s wrong?”
“Happy tears honey,” he said, “I am so proud of you.”
To put a face to the story, Tracy at age 18.
One Sip Trip
Written in response to: “Set your story in a café, garden, or restaurant.“
Patrick Druid
I could feel all of the eyes of the room settling on me as if I had something to do with it. Somebody had to be blamed, I guess and I was it….again! I could never catch a break no matter how hard I tried. The rain really topped of my bad day like the cherry on a banana split. Perfect.
I shook my head as I continued to shiver from the rain under the awning of a cafe.
“Hey, why don’t you come on in and get warm?” , a voice said.
I turned around and saw a blonde woman in her thirties or so, giving me a smile that could light up a room, and her voice had all the home style charm of a freshly baked cookie.
I followed her into her cafe. As soon as I walked through the door, I felt the rush of warm air and a smell of cinnamon. I saw two comfortable chairs and small table in front of a fireplace, so I made a beeline for the closest one and sat down. The chair felt so good, it almost felt like it hugged me.
I looked around for a little bit and then I looked back towards the counter where the barista was making a hot drink. I suddenly felt embarrassed that I had sat down on this chair while still being wet and my face fell
“I’m so sorry. I got this chair all wet!”
Again, she smiled at me. “Don’t you worry about it, hun! You’re all cold and wet and you need something warm in you. Here’s a cuppa my finest for ya on the house!”
She placed the cup and saucer on the little side table. I saw the steam rising from the hot reddish liquid inside. As much as I tried to resist the urge to wait to take a sip, I felt strangely drawn to this drink as the scent of apples filled my head.
“Ya had a hard day, huh?”
“Yeah,” I said to her, then I looked up. “How can you tell?”
She laughed. “I’m psychic!”
“Pfft!”
She laughed again..”okay I’m not psychic. You came in wet and you were looking down at the ground most of the time.”.
“It’s just body language, that’s all. Nuthin special”
I nodded my head and took a sip of the drink and it reminded me of a mincemeat pie on Christmas night. I closed my eyes for a bit and just let gravity take me.
“It’s good, huh?”, she said to me softly almost in a barely perceptible whisper. “I made it just for you, hun!”
“Mmmmmmm..hmmmmm” I managed to say before the ambience finally lulled me into a much needed sleep. “Perhaps a few minutes shut eye here won’t hurt”, I said as I reached for the saucer and the cup.
Clouds
I saw clouds
I was sitting in a dusty field overlooking the Grand Canyon. It was dusk and the last rays were disappearing over the horizon. The air was crisp and dry.
I sighed and yawned deeply as I took in the view. I remember thinking that I should take a little trip here one day.
“Beautiful isn’t it?”
“Yeah”, I said then frowned. Who was talking to me? I looked around and I didn’t see anyone.
“Wait , wait wait. Ssshh.” the female voice intoned softly. “It’s totally okay. ”
I continued to look around a bit but saw no one. “Who are you? Where are you?”
“Sorry to bother you but I have news and you’re not going to like it.”
I looked around again and shook my head. “You have news? I don’t even know who you are!”
The voice sighed for a moment and spoke again more quietly. “Who I am isn’t important. I am here to rescue you”
“What?!?”
“Let’s take a good look at your situation and you’ll see why you need me. For starters, you work in the sales department and your department is not meeting the designated numbers, right?”
I slowly nodded.
“Well most corporations by this time have discovered ways to sort of “trim” the ranks without causing too much fuss and attention.”
“Okay….” I said wondering where this was going.
“So..when the corporation decides to find a ‘sacrificial lamb’they make contact with her and set up a ‘meeting’. This way the avoid the termination papers, severance pay, etc
“Her?”
“That barista in the cafe.”
I shook my head at this. “Okay, so they send me to a barista or they send her to me. Weird but so what?” I shrugged my shoulders, or at least I thought I did. I suddenly felt a little cramped.
“Did you notice her name?”
“I think it was Latte or something”
“Starting to feel a little cramped? That means she is got you and we don’t have much time to get you out.”
“What? Get me out of what?”
“Do you trust us?”
“Do I have a choice?”
“What we’re about to do has never been tried before. We are going to try matter transference to get you out of there before your whole consciousness disappears but we have to wait until she has completely wrapped you for storage.”
My eyes went wide……
The voice continued its explanation. “ That tea gave you has a strong sedative and a narcotic, giving you that euphoria you felt.
“Then she wraps you up for safe keeping for awhile, to keep you fresh. Unfortunately, this process does cause the victim to suffocate… slowly.”
“Mmmmmmpppphhghhhhh!”
“Ooooh . Hang on…you’re almost totally wrapped up. When she leaves, we’ll transport your body out.”
I tried to speak but found that could barely get a sound out. I suddenly felt vibrations below me as if I was on a hammock or a rope bridge or.…….a web?
“Mmmmmmpppphhghhhhh!Mmmmmmpppphhghhhhh!!”
Then, I remembered glancing at the sign before I even walked in but it just didn’t register in my mind until now. It read
Lata’s Parlor. Latrodectus. The black widow spider.
“Okay”, the voice said again softly. “We’re almost ready to transport now. You might feel a tingling sensation for a moment.”
I screamed and screamed and screamed the muffled screams of a condemned man about to be taken to his doom. Then I did feel a slight tingling sensation across my chest. Could I be saved?
************
Epilogue
Morning shined down on the town as the businesses opened up for the day. The barista of Lata’s Parlor was sitting at an outside tables, reading a newspaper and sipping a cup of tea. She sighed. “Just the right blend of despair and hope!”
The sign outside read
“Come into Lata’s Parlor! I have just what you need!”
What is the Vietnamese government’s stance on the US-China trade war?
Trump fought a four-year trade war with China during his last term and didn’t gain any advantage at all. It is no longer a trade war between China and the United States, but a declaration of war by the United States against the world.
Trump imposed a 46% tariff on Vietnamese products, which is higher than the tariff on Chinese products.
Vietnam has expressed regret over the U.S.'s decision to impose retaliatory tariffs and will continue to coordinate with the U.S. to find solutions that ensure the stable development of bilateral economic relations.
China retaliated in kind, imposing a 34% retaliatory tariff on American products, while the Vietnamese government reduced the US tariff on Vietnamese exports to 0%.
China will impose a 34% tariff on imports of all U.S. products beginning April 10, part of a flurry of retaliatory measures following U.S.
General Secretary Tô Lâm stressed Việt Nam’s willingness to engage with the US to lower import tariffs on US goods to zero
China and the United States are both giants. Vietnam’s economy is not as large as China’s, so it is impossible for it to directly confront the United States like China.
As a small economy, Vietnam does not have the capital to compete with the United States. It can only show goodwill to Trump and see if Trump can suddenly show mercy and let Vietnam go. Otherwise, Vietnam will fall into the predicament of business closures, mass unemployment, rising prices, and declining people’s livelihood.
But I think it is very unlikely that Trump will let Vietnam go, because the US government is too short of money. If the deficit continues like this, the country will go bankrupt.
Why is the Tesla Cybertruck now the ”must-get truck” for snow plowing jobs?
I would really like to know what gave you this idea.
The Cybertruck has none of the things a modern plow truck needs.
A plow truck built on a Ford or a Chevy starts off with a body on frame. The plow mounts attach to the frame. There is also a Snow Plow Prep Package. This is a factory or a dealer option, and it typically includes front end upgrades, like heavier duty suspension, and sometimes frame reinforcement, and extra power hookups for plow and plow lights. There are upfitters guides on how to get extra equipment installed safely.
There is no such package for the Cybertruck. It doesn’t even have a frame. The entire front is an aluminum “gigacasting”.
I’m not even sure there is a place to mount a plow on that. Using tow hook mounts is generally a bad idea, they are not designed to take compression loads.
There is no manual on plow mounting from Tesla that I have ever heard of. On the other hand, we know that this is what happens with the big aluminum casting in the rear:
Tesla says this is due to people exceeding vertical load rating, which is something ridiculously small, like 160 pounds. A common snow plow weighs 400–600 pounds. And that’s just transporting it, before you start pushing snow. Since the front casting isn’t all that different, it sure doesn’t seem like it would hold up.
All that aside, the Cybertruck would be one of the most annoying vehicles ever to use for snow plowing. And the reason for that is what passes for the gear selector on it.
One of the things that happens when you plow is that you have to constantly back up and go forward. On a normal truck, this is done with a lever on the console or on the column, and you can just keep your hand on it.
On the Cybertruck, you have either the option on the big tablet on the dash, or this thing overhead
Can you imagine sitting there with your arm raised while you plow?
Or with your hand outstretched and hovering over the screen?
All this is before we get to what plowing use would do to the drive motors and battery. I really have no idea how well they would stand up to that sort of use, but the things mentioned above are enough to put the Cybertruck on the list of “must not get” vehicles for plowing.
1940s California in Color – San Francisco [60fps,Remastered] w/sound design added
This is really surprisingly amazing. It takes you all to another time, and another place. It really is a time machine.
What great innovation is unknown to most people?
150 years ago, a doctor walked into a room.
On the table in front of him was a patient lying down.
Around the room, with chairs watching him, was a crowd of skeptical doctors.
The doctor walked forward and signaled to the patient on the table. His assistant came forward with a container; he then proceeded to place a tube in the patient’s mouth.
He then had the patient inhale while his assistant passed water into his mouth.
Then, under the gaze of the doctors who continued to look at him with skepticism, he stepped forward, knife in hand.
He held the knife against the patient’s skin. Then he pressed down and slid the blade through, beginning his incision.
And all the doctors’ eyes opened wide.
Before this moment – this would have been the beginning of high-pitched screams in agony.
And now?
Silence.
The observing doctors were amazed.
For the first time, they could hear only the movement and noises of the surgical team. Their footsteps, their instruments clanking together. The cuts. The application of sutures. The doctor whispering orders to his assistant.
For patients, the threat of surgery without anesthesia was omnipresent and universally feared. Many had to face this outcome if they wished to extend their lives.
William T. Morton, using ether, was the first doctor to introduce surgery with anesthesia. I recognize that most people aren’t familiar with him, but we greatly appreciate his contribution.
What is the nastiest thing you’ve done for revenge?
In the early days of Craigslist, I was trying to get my side business of selling stringed instruments online going. I decided a good way would be to advertise on Craigslist in every state since they didn’t charge me for each sale the way Ebay did. I didn’t know at the time that you weren’t supposed to advertise/sell things outside of the state you live in on Craigslist (I guess that’s a rule, I never really looked into it further). One day I was exchanging emails with a guy in the Mid West somewhere about a ukulele he was interested in. We get down to the details and I give him the instructions on how to make payment, then told him I would ship to him immediately. He realizes I’m not in his state and asks me why the f**k I’m advertising in his home state if I don’t live there. He then cuts off all communication and my listing was cancelled. I can only imagine he complained to Craigslist and had it taken down. This left me livid at his rudeness and actions. I mean, since we’d been conversing amicably prior, he could’ve nicely said something like, “Hey, I don’t know if you’re aware but you’re not supposed to advertise on CL from another state.”
He, unfortunately, used an email address that listed the company’s name he worked for and its location. This was several years ago and let me just say I’m not proud of my actions now. I looked up a bunch of questionable sex publications and had a pretty good number of them mail samples to his company, addressed to his attention. I’m not sure how that actually played out but I did feel badly about it shortly after. And, if you believe in karma or the like, I did kind of experience a string of not-so-good events soon after that.
Were there any American citizens living on US soil who died because they couldn’t afford healthcare?
There are thousands and thousands. They don’t go to the doctor because they can’t afford it, and then when their condition gets bad enough they go to the county general hospital emergency room, which is obliged to treat them whether they can pay or not (but still sends them a bill). It patches them up temporarily… until next time. The cycle repeats, with inadequate long-term care until they die. Because their conditions are not caught early, and they don’t get preventive care, they die unnecessarily, or sooner than they should.
Diabetes is a good example. You don’t have any symptoms until it starts killing off your kidneys and your extremities. Then you get renal failure and skin ulcers on your feet that never heal because they’re not getting enough blood flow. It could have been treated early with pills, not even insulin, and changes to diet, if it were caught. But by that time it’s too late.
Having people get patched up in emergency rooms again and again is expensive and unnecessary. It would be cheaper to give everyone universal health care so their conditions are caught early. States with universal health care are really into preventive medicine because it saves money.
Far from being “rationed” as its opponents claim, my UK doctors are always encouraging me to come in if I need it. They know that it’s cheaper in the long run.
Sir Whiskerton and the Farm’s First Poetry Slam: A Tale of Beatnik Verses, Egg-Laying Dramatics, and the Birth of Poultry Noir
Chapter 1: The Beatnik’s Dream
The flyers appeared overnight, plastered on every barn door, fencepost, and (regrettably) Bessie the Tie-Dye Cow’s forehead:
“JAZZPURR’S 1st ANNUAL BARN-YARD POETRY SLAM!
Featuring: Free Verse! Radical Vibes! Snaps Not Claps!
BYOB (Bring Your Own Beets).”
Sir Whiskerton peeled one off his favorite sunbeam with a claw.
- “This is a terrible idea,” he announced to Ditto the Kitten, who was busy chewing on a loose corner of the poster.
- “Terrible! Terrible!” Ditto echoed, spraying paper scraps.
But Jazzpurr the Beatnik Cat was unstoppable. With his black beret tilted at a jaunty angle and a bongo drum strapped to his back, he’d already converted the chicken coop into a “soulful artistic space” by draping it with Bessie’s old tie-dye scarves.
- “Like, dig the energy, man,” Jazzpurr purred, adjusting a sign that read “NO HAIKU ZONE”. “The farm’s finally gonna express its truth.”
- “Its truth,” Sir Whiskerton muttered, “is that Doris the Hen once had a nervous breakdown over square hay bales.”
Chapter 2: The Contestants Gather (For Better or Worse)
By sundown, the “stage” (a repurposed feed trough) was surrounded by:
- Ferdinand the Duck, clutching a scroll titled “Ode to My Reflection”.
- Bessie, who’d prepared a 15-minute spoken-word piece called “Moo-nlight Sonata (But with More Kale)”.
- Elvis the Rooster, who’d misunderstood the assignment and brought a guitar.
- Ratso the Rat, lurking in the shadows with a suspiciously dramatic trench coat.
And, of course, Sir Whiskerton, who attended solely to prevent property damage.
Jazzpurr kicked things off with a finger-snap ripple.
- “Welcome, cats and chicks, to the realest night of your lives,” he intoned. “First up: Bessie.”
Chapter 3: The Performances (Or Lack Thereof)
Bessie’s poem was… experimental.
- “Like, man… what even is grass?” she began, swaying. “Is it green? Is it life? Or just, like… salad waiting to happen?”
- “Right on, man,” Jazzpurr murmured, snapping.
- “SALAD!” Ditto echoed.
Next, Ferdinand delivered an opera-quack rendition of his poem, which technically violated the “no singing” rule, but Jazzpurr allowed it because “art knows no bounds, man.”
Then—Ratso slithered onto the stage.
A single spotlight (held by Count Catula, who insisted on “proper ambiance”) illuminated his whiskered snout as he lit a match off his own teeth.
- “It was a dark and stormy night…” he growled, “and the cheese… was gone.”
The crowd gasped.
- “I didn’t take it, see,” Ratso continued, pacing. “But the dame with the feathers… she framed me.”
- “Ooooh,” whispered Doris, enthralled.
- “This isn’t poetry!” Sir Whiskerton hissed. “This is film noir propaganda!”
- “Art is subjective, man,” Jazzpurr sighed, snapping.
Chapter 4: Elvis’s Grand (Egg-Stravaganza) Finale
Elvis the Rooster strutted onto the stage, his pompadour glistening under the moonlight.
- “Y’all ain’t ready,” he clucked, strapping on his guitar. “This here’s The Ballad of the King.”
What followed was three minutes of:
- Bluesy clucking.
- A shocking hip thrust.
- And then—
THUNK.
An egg rolled onto the stage.
Silence.
- “Uh,” said Elvis, staring at it. “That ain’t part of the act.”
The crowd erupted.
- “A metaphor for fragility!” cried Bessie.
- “A symbol of rebirth!” argued Jazzpurr.
- “A snack,” muttered Porkchop, licking his lips.
Ratso, seizing the moment, grabbed the egg and held it aloft.
- “The yolk’s on you, see?” he rasped. “Life’s a hard-boiled mystery… and we’re all just scrambled.”
The crowd went wild.
Chapter 5: The Judging (And Travesty of Justice)
In a controversial decision, the egg won “Most Dramatic Performance.”
- “This is ridiculous,” Sir Whiskerton spat. “It’s an egg.”
- “But man, what an egg,” Jazzpurr countered, handing the trophy (a gilded turnip) to Elvis, who immediately sat on it.
Ratso was awarded “Best Noir Ambiance” for “making a salad ingredient seem existential.”
And Bessie received “Most Likely to Start a Cult” for her grass manifesto.
As the night wound down, Sir Whiskerton found himself cornered by Count Catula.
- “Admit it,” the vampire cat purred. “You enjoyed the drama.”
- “I enjoy order,” Sir Whiskerton sniffed. “Not… whatever that was.”
But as he walked away, he might have accidentally snapped along to Jazzpurr’s freestyle bongo outro.
(No witnesses could confirm this.)
Epilogue: The Moral of the Story
The next morning, the farm returned to normal—except for:
- Elvis, who’d laid another egg out of sheer habit.
- Ratso, now writing a screenplay about “The Egg Who Knew Too Much.”
- And Sir Whiskerton, who burned all the remaining flyers.
Moral: Art is subjective (and sometimes ovoid).
The End.
Key Jokes:
- “The yolk’s on you, man” (delivered like a noir punchline).
- Elvis accidentally laying an egg mid-performance.
- Ratso’s egg-based existentialism.
- Bessie’s grass monologue (“Is it salad?”).
Starring: Jazzpurr (beatnik host), Ratso (noir rat), Elvis (egg-laying icon), and Bessie (kale enthusiast).
P.S. The egg still holds the trophy. No one dares take it. 🥚🏆
Musk produces more electric vehicles than anyone in the world, so why does the environmental left hate him?
Wrong.
BYD is the largest manufacturer of EV’s, and in February its sales were up 90% YOY.
Meanwhile, Tesla continues to drop.
As for why people hate him:
- Maybe it’s the Nazi salutes.
- Maybe it’s him and his band of incels firing tens of thousands of people whose jobs they know nothing about.
- Maybe it’s the Cybertruck, which got recalled 8 times in a single year.
- Maybe it’s the fact he bought a presidency, and is now shopping for docile Congresspeople and Supreme Court judges in Wisconsin.
- Maybe it’s the fact that he was an illegal immigrant, but is now anti-immigration except for white South Africans and the Indian engineers he hires on the cheap and knows won’t push for unionization because their H-1B visas are at stake.
- Maybe it’s the fact the richest man has to be taken to court to pay even the minimum child support required by law for several of his 14 children.
- Maybe it’s the fact he hasn’t even tried to raise any of them.
- Maybe it’s the fact he says his own child is dead because she identifies as a girl when he wanted a boy.
- Maybe it’s the fact that Tesla paid just $48 million in taxes FOR THE LAST 3 YEARS despite getting 30% of its revenue — and often half its profits — from government handouts in the form of carbon tax credits.
- Maybe it’s the fact he keeps calling it Full Self Driving when it requires “Supervision” (look at the website), resulting in needless accidents and deaths.
- Maybe it’s the fact he lied about restarting Ebola prevention efforts, after wrongly cutting them in the first place.
- Maybe it’s the fact his “total transparency” on DOGE is full of lies, mistakes, sudden disappearances and complete bullshit.
- Maybe there are so many more awful things about that failed human that I can’t stand to list them all.
- Maybe it’s the fact that he didn’t invent Tesla, the one car he “led” was the disastrous Cybertruck, and the company would be MUCH better off without his toxic involvement.
Is the CLion IDE good for learning C or C++?
Indeed, IDEs are sometimes more of a hindrance than a help when you’re learning a new programming language. However, this isn’t true of CLion, which can be very helpful right off the bat. Let’s run through some of the advantages of using CLion:
CLion makes it easy to start a new project. The wizard will generate a simple project structure with stub code that you can explore and run right away.
Then, as you start writing code, CLion will highlight its structure and suggest improvements. This allows you to learn both the language itself and the best code practices from the very beginning.
For many error cases, CLion suggests quick-fixes, which means you can start memorizing the proper solutions right off the bat. For example, the IDE catches typical errors like dangling pointers – the types of errors that might pop up a lot when you’re a newbie but can also be hard to debug.
The building, running, and debugging processes are completely transparent, as are VCS operations. You can control every step, see the exact commands, parameters, and flags that are being used, and experiment with them. If necessary, you can always perform the same actions in the built-in terminal.
CLion allows you to become familiar with a variety of compilers and build systems. It works with gcc, Clang, MSVC compilers, and project formats, such as CMake, Makefile, Meson, and others.
Understanding the underlying assembly is important when you’re learning a language like C++. CLion allows you to examine the assembly of a file without having to build the entire project. You can change the compiler flags, refresh the assembly view, and see the effect immediately.
And, of course, the IDE debugger is very convenient for learning. The IDE will help you investigate any runtime problem, including those that require memory analysis and disassembly.
To summarize, CLion will not overwhelm you with a complex set-up process and will not hide the essentials in the background. You’ll be able to get up and running with a project in no time, while learning best code practices and efficient debugging right out of the gate.
And if you’re a student, you can get it all for free!
Shorpy
What are your thoughts on communism and its implementation? Can you name any current or former communist countries?
In the eyes of Westerners, I might be burdened with original sin—I am Chinese, not young anymore, and raised under a communist education.
But think about it: a relatively weak country (A), after embracing this ideology, stood in opposition to the world’s most powerful nation，which also held every geopolitical advantage（B）, for 50 years before finally collapsing.
A = the Soviet Union.
B = the United States.
I’ve always said to Americans: You shouldn’t mock the Soviet Union, because that’s tantamount to mocking yourselves.
The Chinese Communist Party hasn’t had it easy either.
From its founding in 1921 to its nationwide victory in 1949.
Every day, 350 CCP members were killed.
Over more than ten thousand days, 350 people were killed each day — beheaded, shot, buried alive, burned to death…
Every single day.
Through 28 years of bloody slaughter, this party rose from a pool of blood.
It must have had the support of many people.
Communism has, to a significant extent, been stigmatized.
I admit that in the process of trying to realize communism, there have been too many setbacks and sacrifices, as well as lunatics acting in its name, like North Korea.
But communism is indeed worth pursuing.
“From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!”
The beauty of communism doesn’t lie in conjuring up a flawless paradise, but in the fact that the system of human exploitation will eventually be cast aside, and the shackles of alienated labor will finally be broken.
True communism is never found in financial statements. It’s hidden in the reflection of a newly dug well in Makomba village—where a Chinese agricultural technician and a Black brother share an enamel cup, and hybrid rice seeds burst into waves of green under the equatorial sun.
When cobalt miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo can support their children with the profits from the mines.
When the electricity generated on the African continent can power factories owned by Africans themselves.
When the two railway tracks built by China, seen from above, resemble stitches sewing up the wounds torn into the earth!
When we acknowledge: I am human, and he is human too—not livestock!
—This is the echo of the oath “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” resounding in the 21st century!
Larry C. Johnson: US Forced Out of Red Sea After Air Defense Collapse!
Why is the Kawasaki H2 so famous if most liter bikes without supercharger make the same power and weigh less?
It’s not famous the H2R is as it’s more powerful & lighter & widely regarded as the fastest production bike though it’s not street legal. You would need to swap some H2 parts so it has things like lights. Our chief engineer has one he owns 14 bikes & it’s brutal compared to my bike which produces 210hp. Expensive bike to run though short service intervals & the only bike I know that manages to rip its tires. Rear looked like a big cat had clawed it 4 curved gashes presumably from powering on with rubbish, stones on the road.
The original was nuts rode that to & you absolutely wait for it to be warmed up before giving it much throttle or it will do its best to flip itself.
Nostalgia Cafe
Written in response to: “Set your story in a café, garden, or restaurant.“
Nick DeLarso
“Since the beginning. It’s a lovely work environment. Would you like to see one of the empty realms? I can explain how they work.”
“Lead the way.” Steven trailed behind Desire, gently maneuvering through the tight spaces between the boxes. At a closer look, drool could be seen accumulating around the corner of the patron’s lips where a clear-feeding tube connected, to which his brow furrowed with an inquisitive glare. “Are these people conscious?” Steven spoke quietly, finally arriving at their destination.
“You can call it that. Their bodily functions are still intact, they are just not present inside of this realm, if that makes sense. These neurocaps, as we call them, attach to the top of your skull. Of course, these are only compatible with the folks who have had the neuroconduit implant, which is a percentage that is gaining great traction every day. These caps, similar to bluetooth, have the ability to hijack your current consciousness, subjecting you to your fondest memories, or the fondest memories of others. As you might know, nostalgia is one of the greatest feelings known to mankind; it is essentially our brain recognizing the greatest and most memorable moments of our lifetime. This has ten-times the dopamine release as opium without the physical ailments that follow usage.” Desire did not budge from her smiling disposition during her explanation.
“Interesting…” Steven was notating along with her spiel, underlining certain-important factors for later reporting. “So what you’re describing is essentially a drug, if I’m deciphering this correctly?”
“We believe drug is a harsh term; this, as we see it, is a cure for the lack of excitement in modern life. It allows the youth to witness a world, free of technology’s grasp, ironically enough. When kids played outside, without the need for social media or others’ validations. Or even, someone living out their childhood dreams! I know it seems counterproductive, but as you and the rest of the world know, technology is not going anywhere. If this reality will not supply happiness to humanity, we will have to use the most powerful tool in the Universe: the brain.”
Steven frowned momentarily, though his optimism had seemingly grown from its initial state of uncertainty with her response. “So you see this as a fix to the current state of life? Why not use this message to promote life outside of these helmets, rather than shackling the people to this technology? I know you said it’s not going anywhere, but there is always the margin for change.” Steven pressed the top of the pen against his lips, again studying some of the people hooked up to the cap.
“This Nation is no longer a Democracy, Steven. We have eclipsed that and have entered a Technocracy. The most powerful people on the planet own our search data, our health records; they’ve created algorithms for just about each individual on this planet and know how to affect our daily lives. They have discovered that our conscience is no more than a computer itself, with the ability to be hacked and structured in any way seen fit, especially if they’re in control of our gene structures and our conscious way of thought. We here are allowing individuals to use their brain and decide for themselves where their happiness lies—even if that is in someone else’s glory.”
Steven took a moment. Being thirty-five years old in the year 2030, he attempted to recollect his past before cell phones and the internet. It seemed foreign to even conclude that there was a time where people did not have a device attached to their hand, better yet their heads; but somehow, he remembered how bright the Sun used to shine on early mornings during Summer break; or the feeling of the brisk Fall, torpedoing through the Summer’s humidity on a random, late-September night as they awaited their parent’s voices to call them inside for dinner.
Most importantly, he reflected on his longing to become a Journalist as a child, watching the news with his Father, who was also a Journalist, and how he would critique their substandard reporting. It nearly brought a tear to his eye, finally materializing such a fantasy as his own. And there it was, just experienced in that paramount thought: nostalgia. How potent it was, forever just out of reach physically, but always nestled inside the warmest parts of our memory, ready to resurface in an instant at the most unexpected moment.
“How are you able to create these fond memories?” Steven began writing once again, in preparation for the response.
“Well, some people have the privilege to vividly remember a memory, like a movie; others, they write down a certain fragrance, or sound, or sentence—we’re able to take this data and create an exact match to what they’re pining for. If it doesn’t work initially, we will continue to attempt at creating this exact match. Once the match is made, the cap will sense that nostalgia is beginning to stimulate metabolic activity and blood flow in several regions of the brain, particularly the frontal, limbic, paralimbic, and midbrain areas. From here, the memory is projected into the brain; this data is downloaded into our servers, and the cycle of nostalgia is created for those who have never experienced these certain perspectives of life.”
Steven was flabbergasted, and his hands began to shake as he wrote the correspondence down. “How long do some of these people spend here?” He once again would gander abroad to all of the inhabited nooks.
“As long as needed. Some people, they never leave the benevolent loop of nostalgia. We’ve even seen people create new nostalgia within the neurocap. People who could never achieve their dreams; maybe they didn’t have the funds, or a tragedy struck. The inner-consciousness of the neurocap is expanding. It’s very exciting progress.” Desire responded candidly.
“That is pretty amazing. There must be a cost, no?” Steven’s pen moved within a serpentine, his hand sliding eloquently across the page.
“That’s the kicker: Nostalgia Cafe is a self-funding tool. As you opt to upload your own Nostalgia, you are generating Nostalgia Coins with your own brain’s energy! These can be used at any Nostalgia Cafe, worldwide. Nostalgia Coins can be converted into any of the prominent Cryptocurrencies. We are projected to become the largest within the next five-years at this pace.”
“Wouldn’t the financial aspect cause a bit of conflict with the intent? Couldn’t the creator simply lock people in, for financial gain? And how does one exit this concocted neuro-realm?” Steven’s tone was reticent, nearly rhetoric.
“The same way you’ve entered. All you must do is exit the Nostalgia Cafe. No one is forced to stay.” Desire’s response was ambiguous, though Steven did not retort. This was the first time her smile departed, but only for a second.
Steven felt the danger of this revolving door, essentially supplying your own means to disassociate from the current world; however, there was an enticing nature within this scientific discovery. He knew the reason he was sent here in the first place, to immerse himself into this newly-discovered world, head-first, as a respected Journalist. “I actually have the neuroconduit myself; many of us at Blueprint had received the chip initially, for faster data processing.” He looked over his notebook endearingly. “You know, it was always a dream of mine to be a Journalist—to get the chance to break-open a story, just like my Father—to really expose the truth.” There was an incessant memory that prodded at Steven’s attention span, though he tried to ignore it.
“Nostalgia awaits you, Steven.” Desire took a step aside, displaying the open space in its entirety.
Steven gulped at Desire’s words, followed by the racing of his heart. Steven took a step forward, grabbing hold of the chair to alleviate the wobbling of his legs. “I’m not sure, this sounds a bit..dangerous, no?”
“There’s no danger in the past.” Desire’s voice was stern.
Steven looked towards the front door, which was engulfed by a fog, distorting anything past the windowpane. “Weather seems nasty outside; I guess it wouldn’t hurt to try for a few minutes, for journalistic measures.” Steven sat down reluctantly, rubbing his hands along the arms of the leather chair. In his hands, he cupped the mechanism that would supply himself with endless elation; and that aforementioned memory, it was prying once again to be remembered, just before the helmet could be placed upon his skull.
“I’ll see you again, Steven. And thank you for your loyalty to Nostalgia Cafe.” Desire sauntered away from his space, still smiling.
“Wait a minute!” Steven stopped Desire in her tracks, to which she turned to face him once more. “I know you said all you have to do is leave; but how do you know you’re no longer in the actual realm?” Steven had a question mark and an asterisk next to this question.
“Once the memory is complete.” And she continued toward the front desk.
“Loyalty?”… Steven thought it odd she would allude to such, as this was his first visit; nonetheless, he continued as planned: Steven quickly placed the neurocap upon his head before he closed his eyes shut; then, he took a dozen or so deep breaths, to clear what was unnecessarily cluttered within his mind. It was only moments before he would return to that other realm of nostalgia, one filled with anachronistic promises and emancipation from a world of deceit.
“Welcome to Nostalgia Cafe!”
Has Tesla stock dropped since December because of Elon Musk’s growing role in the Trump administration?
Tesla’s stock drop is due to a combination of reasons:
- Tesla was WAY overvalued
- Their sales were already shrinking last year
- Their only product launch in 5 years was a flop
- Musk came out as a Nazi, MAGA activist and huge Trump donor, triggering a massive worldwide boycott
- Musk has ruthlessly and illegally fired 100,000 government employees
- Tesla is losing to BYD in the China market and to other car makers in the rest of the world
In 2025 Tesla is doomed to have a disastrous year. Europe sales are falling like a rock. Tesla is now a toxic brand in Canada, Australia and the US.
First, by November 2024 Tesla’s market cap (total value of all outstanding shares) was greater than the market caps of the 20 biggest car companies in the world combined. So Toyota, Honda, GM, Ford, Mercedes, BMW, VW, Ferrari, Porsche, Subaru, Fiat-Chrysler all added together were worth LESS than Tesla! While other car companies had a PE ratio of 6 to 10, Tesla’s PE was over 100. It was WAY overvalued due to very high growth expectations.
In 2024 Tesla’s sales actually shrunk! Just based on being way overvalued and their sales declining, their stock has to get punished.
The Cybertruck is ugly AF, and has been plagued with quality problems. That is Tesla’s only new vehicle in 5 years.
Then Musk became a full-scale Nazi political activist, giving hundreds of millions of dollars to Trump’s campaign, actively campaigning for Trump, spouting right wing political propaganda and conspiracy theories on Twitter, and then the Nazi salute twice at Trump’s inauguration. This was especially stupid because most of the people buying Teslas are Democrats. Europeans really hate Nazis, so that Nazi salute triggered Europeans to boycott Tesla aggressively.
The past two months Musk has taken the lead role in Trump’s administration, not merely taking over government IT systems and firing 100,000 government employees, but also doing it as rudely as possible (e.g. telling career employees they have 15 minutes to clear out their desk and leave the building with no severance), and bragging about it on Twitter and in podcasts and on Fox News, and dancing on stage with a chain saw like it’s a big joke.
Competition — in Tesla’s second biggest market, China, BYD is way beating Tesla. BYD has a great car at half the price of Tesla with much better self driving in China. In other markets EV competition from Hyundai, Mercedes, BMW, Ford, VW and others.
Now the used Tesla market is plummeting because people don’t want to own a Swasticar. Why would anyone buy a new Tesla when you can have a used one dirt cheap?
Also, Tesla is losing the robo-taxi competition to Waymo.
Tesla has an ABSENTEE CEO. Musk claimed to be a professional gamer in 2024. In 2025 he’s moved to Washington to head DOGE. He is CEO of six companies at once, which is ridiculous. At most he could spend 10 hours a week on each company. He has spent exactly zero time managing Tesla over the past year…other than damage control for his Cybertruck disaster.
Apricot Cheese Crescents
Yield: 4 1/2 dozen
Ingredients
Pastry
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup cold butter
- 1 cup (8 ounces) small-curd cottage cheese
Filling
- 1 (6 ounce) package dried apricots
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
Topping
- 3/4 cup finely chopped almonds
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg white, lightly beaten
Instructions
Pastry
- In a large bowl, combine flour and salt; cut in butter until crumbly. Add cottage cheese; mix well. Shape into 1 inch balls.
- Cover and refrigerate several hours or overnight.
Filling
- Combine apricots and water in a saucepan. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
- Cool for 10 minutes.
- Pour into a blender; cover and process on high speed until smooth. Transfer to a bowl; stir in sugar. cover and chill.
Topping
- Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a cookie sheet.
- Combine almonds and sugar; set aside.
- On a floured surface, roll the balls into 2 1/2 inch circles. Spoon about 1 teaspoon of filling onto each. Fold dough over filling and pinch edges to seal. Place on prepared cookie sheet. Brush tops with egg white; sprinkle with almond mixture.
- Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until lightly browned.
Why do South Korean Samsung phones advertise so hard in China, but almost no Chinese buy them?
Samsung burnt its bridges when it sued the Chinese users who reported Galaxy Note 7 catching fire. It’s market share dropped from 20% to less than 1% after that and never recovered.
Samsung will have to kneel and beg and suck us double hard to get Chinese customers to buy their stuff again. But apparently Samsung is operating just fine without the China market so it doesn’t want to do that.